


One Of Our Own

by SilverAmoebasquid



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Harry Potter AU, Hogwarts AU, sry this has been finished for so long i just havent gotten to post it ;;
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 12:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17060057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverAmoebasquid/pseuds/SilverAmoebasquid
Summary: At Hogwarts, every student has a place to belong in one of the four houses so that no one is left out. But behind the scenes, sorting may not be as painless and simple as it seems. Taichi has a first-hand look into this as he witnesses the struggles he and his friends go through when they find they don't always fit in with their designated houses. But that might be just what they need to stop the destruction of the whole school.





	1. Chapter 1

Loud. The quidditch stadium was always so loud in Taichi’s ears and getting worse the closer he got. He was stifling hot in the black robe with the blue and bronze colored scarf tied around his neck. He glanced to both sides, unable to tell if there were eyes on him or if he was just imagining things like he tended to do in amidst big crowds like this.

“Taichi! Keep up!”

Taichi faced forward again, spotting his best friend a few meters ahead of him in the throng of spectators filing into the stadium. He wove between a couple shorter students to fall into step beside the Ravenclaw. “Why are you yelling; you don’t even want to be here.”

Kenjirou had a book tucked under one arm and his permanent scowl on his face. “Fine. Get lost in the crowd. See if I give a damn.”

Taichi knew what happened when he got separated from his friends in the massive school and he was in no rush to let that happen again. He stuck close to Kenjirou’s side as they found seats where they always sat. The bench they usually claimed for their own wasn’t in any of the prime viewing areas; it was hard to get into one of those. The best spot in the entire audience was always claimed by a large group of Gryffindors or Slytherins — whoever got there first that day. A fight almost always surrounded which house got to occupy that section and Taichi thought watching the red versus green argument was sometimes more amusing than the actual quidditch match itself. No one would forget the time the two rival houses bickered and threw minor hexes back and forth for the entire duration of the match. Or the time professors had taken matters into their own hands and kicked both of the large groups out of the stadium altogether, allowing a small group of laughing Hufflepuffs into the prime seating area.

Directly contrasting the school’s most infamous rivalry, Taichi walked to his normal spot to see his closest friends saving the seats, watching Satori knot his green and silver tie with Wakatoshi’s red and gold one. Next to Satori, Tsutomu laughed and brandished his yellow and black tie. Satori grabbed the younger student and tried to add his tie to the balled up knot between him and Wakatoshi.

The redhead spotted the incoming fourth-year students and waved. “Kenjirou! Come here! I need your tie so we can have an ultra tie knot of destiny!”

Kenjirou frowned and pushed Taichi to sit between him and the rest of the group, plunking down on the wooden bench and setting his book down on his lap. “Hope nothing bad happens to that.”

Tsutomu’s smile faded as his fingers fumbled with the knot, trying to break free but ending up with the knot only worsening in complexity somehow. Satori was laughing and Wakatoshi just looked perplexed, offering to help in trying to free them all.

Taichi smirked and looked back over, watching Kenjirou slip his wand back into the pocket of his pants.

On the other side of the bench, Eita sighed and stood up, walking over to the tangled mess that was three of his closest friends. He touched Tsutomu’s head lightly, murmuring for him to stop panicking before raising the tip of his own wand to the messy knot, casting a quiet spell to untie them.

All three swayed backwards as the restraints binding them together in the middle were released, Satori still laughing, Wakatoshi looking more content than before, and Tsutomu turning to hug Eita as the fifth year student sat back down.

Reon smirked and nudged Eita. “Big bad Slytherin at it again ruining lives, I see.”

Eita laughed, nudging Reon back. “You’re not allowed to judge me, you excitable, innocent Hufflepuff.”

Taichi surveyed his friends spread out across the bench. A gap lay between Reon on the end and the next group of spectators and same on Kenjirou’s other side. A lot of the students put space between them and the odd group they made, all a mismatch of houses and not even all that good at what traits they were supposed to embody. Taichi liked it though because it meant fewer eyes on him.

From the bench where Taichi always sat, visibility of the field was partially blocked by one of the goals, but he had never minded. Again, sometimes the real entertainment came from the people right next to him instead of on the field. Taichi wasn’t the biggest fan of the magical sport even though he’d grown up watching professional matches and attended every game at the school.

He did love the occasion to step out into the sun with a real purpose to cheer and to effortlessly spend time with his friends even if he did have to deal with their nonsense for a while. And most importantly, on days like today when Gryffindor played, Taichi needed to be there to cheer for Hayato who came shooting out onto the pitch with the rest of the Gryffindor team, waving and drinking in the attention of most of the audience.

Taichi figured that at least two-thirds of the stadium would be cheering for Gryffindor at any given point in time. On days Gryffindor played, most students, if their own house’s team wasn’t playing, would root for them. Today, Gryffindor faced Slytherin, always an exciting match. Taichi figured there weren’t many non-Slytherins who would root for them, though he had never quite understood why the competitions between Hogwarts’ two top houses ran quite so deep.

He cheered with his friends and most of the stadium as Hayato pulled a few tricks before the whistle blew and the match started. Taichi figured he was just another statistic in this case, rooting for Gryffindor, even though he considered his motive to be purer than most. If Eita or Satori were on Slytherin’s quidditch team, he wouldn’t hesitate to root for them simultaneously.

As the game kicked off, things settled down slightly, including in the prime seating area where the group of Slytherin students stalked off to find a different area since the Gryffindors outnumbered them vastly today.

Taichi thought the loudest cheering was coming from his row though. Satori, Eita, and Tsutomu stood for the entire match, screaming whenever Hayato did something flashy. Reon had moved to sit next to Wakatoshi and they talked softly. Reon was on Hufflepuff’s quidditch team and he always analyzed the games he got to spectate, discussing strategies usually with either Wakatoshi or Kenjirou. On Taichi’s other side, Kenjirou still had his book out on his lap, but his eyes were fixed on the quidditch pitch as well.

“What are you thinking?” Taichi asked quietly.

“With the Gryffindors in the prime seats. Do you see her?”

Taichi smirked. “We’re on the same page as usual, I see.

Kenjirou leaned around Taichi to pull on the sleeve of Satori’s green sweater. “You taking bets?”

Satori interrupted his yelling to grin down at Kenjirou. “Depends! Are you betting against me or with me!”

Eita raised an eyebrow and joined the conversation, yelling to be heard over all the cheering in the stadium. “Satori, don’t spoil the match just because you can use divination.”

“I won’t!” Satori insisted. “What’s the bet of the day, Kenjirou?”

“Slytherin is going to win,” Kenjirou said, matter of fact.

“You’re betting against Hayato?” Eita frowned.

“I’m betting against Gryffindor. There’s a difference.”

Eita looked back out on the field. “I’ll take that bet. I think Gryffindor will win.”

Satori cackled. “For shame, Eita! Betting against your own team!”

“I just want to bet against Kenjirou.”

“The usual wager?” Kenjirou asked, holding out a hand.

“Sure.” Eita looked to Satori.

The redhead snickered. “Sorry, Eita, you’re gonna have to pay up. Kenjirou’s right on track today!”

Eita slouched and dug into the pocket of his pants to slap some money into Kenjirou’s hand. “How close is the score going to be, Satori?”

The fifth-year student let his hand drop into his pocket, fingering a tiny crystal ball that he kept with him at all times. “Wouldn’t you like to know. Maybe you should ask Kenjirou!”

Kenjirou went back to calmly sitting beside Taichi, watching the game. “I have no idea. I just know Slytherin’s going to win.”

Satori followed, getting down in Kenjirou’s face and grinning devilishly, extracting the crystal ball from his pocket and holding it between their noses. “I found out from this. How’d you know it, Kenjirou?”

Kenjirou stole another glance at Taichi. “Gryffindor’s seeker keeps looking to one spot in the crowd. I think he has a girlfriend. Distraction doesn’t bode well for seekers.”

Taichi focused back on the seekers to confirm the theory. Slytherin’s was indeed diligently watching the air for any sign of the snitch. Gryffindor’s was patrolling as well, but he was obviously stealing glances at the stands and smiling gently.

“Damn divination experts,” Eita muttered, glaring in response to Satori and Kenjirou’s hushed conversation.

Taichi ducked out of the way as Kenjirou got to his feet, pushing Satori out of the way and barely catching his book before it fell. Taichi knew better than to be in Kenjirou’s way when he got fired up.

The spark in Kenjirou’s eyes beginning to burn hotter, he punched Eita’s shoulder from around Satori. “Don’t fucking group me in with the rest of the divination weirdos like him!”

Satori laughed and wrapped his arms around Kenjirou. “Embrace who you are!”

Eita raised one eyebrow. “So did you use arithmancy or astronomy to figure out who would win?”

“I used my  _ eyes _ actually,” Kenjirou argued. “As some of us know, not everything has to be magic in order to work.”

Taichi’s gaze shot up, connecting with the glance Kenjirou shot back over his shoulder, just for an instant.

“Whatever,” Eita said, brushing Kenjirou’s harsh tone off. “You can deny it all you want, but you’re always going to be a divination nerd.”

Taichi sighed and gently grabbed Kenjirou’s wrist, pulling him away from the conflict to sit back down in his seat.

“Not a divination nerd,” Kenjirou huffed.

Taichi had always enjoyed the astronomy and arithmancy Kenjirou taught him. It made actual, non-magical sense, unlike pretty much any other subjects taught at Hogwarts. Of course, he admired all of the work done at the school and he was always awed by what even first-year students could pull off with just a simple flick of the wand. Taichi had watched Kenjirou excel in most all of it, but it was the stuff that had roots in muggle science that had grabbed his interest. It didn’t surprise Taichi to know this since Kenjirou had come from a non-magic family. The “mudblood” tag was hard to shake in this school. Taichi had watched his best friend get laughed at for his heritage, but he’d also watched him dismiss magical techniques completely and come out on top, just like with profiling Gryffindor’s seeker.

 

The game didn’t take too long. Kenjirou’s prediction of the outcome that Satori had doubtlessly foreseen as well — though he used more magical techniques — had come true, Gryffindor’s seeker catching sight of the snitch only seconds after Slytherin’s, but those few seconds costing them the match.

Eita complained loudly as they filed out of the stadium though he was mostly ignored by everyone except Tsutomu who made it his personal mission to cheer Eita up after losing money to Kenjirou again. Kenjirou had taken no part in the argument, instead walking with Wakatoshi and Reon, discussing broom maneuvers and gameplay strategies quietly. Taichi would’ve been content to walk alongside his friends in silence, but instead, the other unoccupied member of their group bounded over and wrapped a long, pale arm around Taichi’s shoulders.

Taichi did his best to look away and ignore the redhead but there was no denying Satori of the attention he wanted. “What’d you think of the game, Taichi?”

Shrugging noncommittally, Taichi wove in between more students trying to leave the stadium. Really, the magic world could be so dumb sometimes. Everyone was so focused on turning rats into goblets that they didn’t bother coming up with good ways to handle stadium crowding. “It was okay,” Taichi answered finally. “It was exciting to try and figure out how it would end, but after that, it wasn’t anything special.”

Satori snickered. “So hard to entertain! Some people eat, sleep, and breathe quidditch and they don’t even take the time to try and guess the outcome!”

“Yeah? Well, that’ll never be me. It’s probably more exciting to be out on the pitch, but spectating isn’t the most exciting thing.”

“Remind me sometime and I’ll take you up with me again on my broom!”

“I’ll pass,” Taichi said quickly. There were few people he trusted enough to ride along with. Reon and Eita were the most stable drivers. The first and last time he’d been naive enough to get on a broom with Satori, he’d spent the next hour in the bathroom, hurling everything he’d eaten in the past week because of all the corkscrews and nosedives Satori liked to pull.

A hand landed on Taichi’s shoulder out of nowhere and pulled him suddenly away from Satori. Taichi recognized the smirking face of a Gryffindor student in front of him as he reached toward Taichi’s chest and grabbed his solid black tie out from where it was tucked into his gray cardigan. “Ooh, what’s this? Black tie? That’s edgy.”

Taichi pulled away sharply and walked quickly away, keeping his eyes pointed straight ahead. But he could still hear the voice behind him.

“Wait, where’d you get a Ravenclaw scarf from then?”

Reaching up quickly, Taichi felt the blue and bronze material slip through his fingers as it was ripped away from his neck and dropped to the ground. A black shoe came down upon it, stamping it into the stone ground, grubby and muddy from the countless shoes that walked over it to and from the stadium. Taichi felt the tug in his gut like he wanted to reach out for it, but he knew better and didn’t move. Time froze for an instant as Taichi glanced at the floor, avoiding the still smirking face in front of him on the way down.

When everything resumed, Taichi closed his eyes and pretended it hadn’t.

Kenjirou, Eita, and Tsutomu had instantly rounded on the group of Gryffindors, now laughing off their taunts like it was no big deal. Reon did his best to mediate the rising conflict, physically pulling Kenjirou away. Satori and Wakatoshi appeared on either side of Taichi, grabbing his arms and pulling him away from the scene.

Satori’s long fingers slid through the back of Taichi’s hair and pushed his head down. “Don’t look at them. Just walk; we’ve got you.”

Taichi did as he was told, staring at his shoes and those of his two friends as they pushed him through the crowds a little quicker than before and away from the bullies. He didn’t look up again until a shadow fell over him and he raised his head to look up at the towering Hogwarts castle with its spires and familiar stonework. Led inside, Taichi stood against one of the outer walls, Wakatoshi and Satori remaining next to him.

“Are you okay?” Wakatoshi asked, just loud enough to be heard over the other students entering the castle, most complaining about Gryffindor’s loss.

Taichi nodded, his eyes still on the front doors. “The scarf...”

Satori punched Taichi’s shoulder lightly. “Dude, no one cares about the scarf. As long as they didn’t hurt you!”

Taichi shrugged. “It wasn’t mine to lose though...”

“Kenjirou can get himself a new scarf whenever he feels like it,” Satori scoffed.

At that moment a cluster of students pushed through the front doors of the school and jogged over.

Hayato was in the lead, looking faintly sweaty and still wearing part of his quidditch uniform. “Taichi! You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah. I’m okay. You looked good out there today.”

Hayato stood with his hands on his hips and a soft pout on his lips. “I mean, we lost.”

“If all of your team was paying as much attention as you, Slytherin would’ve lost,” Kenjirou remarked, following Hayato with Reon, Tsutomu, and Eita, his eyes on Taichi.

Eita pushed a smile onto his face. “How about we get something to eat and sit out on the quad and celebrate a stunning win from my house.”

“Funny how you lost money on said stunning win.” Kenjirou rolled his eyes and jingled the new coins in his pocket.

Reon’s hand ended up on Hayato’s back, breaking through his scowl. “It was a very well-played game on both sides. Should we go get lunch?”

Taichi took a step away from the group. “I’ll pass. Catch you guys later?”

A few tense, silent nods met Taichi, but he dismissed them, breaking off and heading for home.

Without having to say anything, Kenjirou separated as well and fell into step next to Taichi.

“Don’t you want to go eat lunch with the others?” Taichi muttered, tracing his way through the corridors that some found confusing, but he had memorized long ago.

“If you don’t want company.”

“I think I’d like some space. Thanks though. And sorry for losing your scarf.”

“I can buy a new one if I need it.” He shrugged, affirming what Satori had told Taichi earlier. “You know that’s not a big deal to me.”

Taichi scoffed. “Yeah. Sorry anyway. I guess it wasn’t that great of a disguise.”

“You know it helps most of the time. Those guys were just bullies and you know they’d see through any non-magic disguise you tried to put on.”

“Yeah.” Taichi rounded another corner to face the entrance to his home. To everyone else in the castle, it looked like a completely blank stone wall, featureless and unremarkable. Like many of the doors in the Hogwarts castle, it had its tricks. The wood-paneled door that Taichi saw in front of him was invisible to magic users — ironic, since the charm over the door had been cast centuries ago by a powerful witch. But it served its purpose perfectly, appearing only to people with no magical abilities. People like him.

Taichi pushed the door open and waved over his shoulder. He could see the gears turning in Kenjirou’s head like everytime he watched Taichi open the door. Taichi wasn’t exactly sure what the hidden door looked like to a magic-user, but the fact that it still had the power to confuse Kenjirou made him smile. “I’ll see you later.”

Kenjirou stepped forward, his hands reaching up to his neck and loosening the blue tie he wore until he could slip it off over his head. “Here. Take this in case you need another quick disguise.”

Taichi couldn’t help smiling as he accepted. “I’m pretty sure I have another one of your ties and I got in trouble last time I actively disguised myself as a Ravenclaw. A scarf is a scarf but ties mean business around here.”

“Take it anyway,” Kenjirou muttered, turning. “Bye.”

Taichi retreated into his hidden home and shut the door behind him, flipping the lock even though no one knew it was even there. A soothing contrast to the rest of the candle-lit castle grounds, an electric light bulb lit the small room hidden within the wall and the space was filled with muggle items and books. Taichi flopped down on his bed to look at the ceiling and think. Of course, he wasn’t bothered anymore by the teasing remarks that followed him around the school when he bothered to leave his room, but he hated the tension any encounter injected into the group’s fun dynamic. Taichi knew it was technically his fault any of his friends had to get involved and he didn’t need magical abilities to know that they would all do anything to stop the tormenting. But there was nothing to be done, never would be. Taichi wished his friends would accept that instead of trying to fight it. He’d come to terms long ago with the idea that he’d spend his childhood talking to the numerous resident ghosts more than the students and he’d grow up in a lonely room away from the world, surrounded by trinkets and appliances no one else here even knew how to use.

The living conditions weren’t ideal, but Taichi was just glad he had at least this much, this little room under everyone’s noses, the perfect hideout for him. Perfect for him, the son of a powerful wizard who worked overseas for the Ministry of Magic and a renowned witch professor here at Britain’s most famous wizarding school, the son of two influential people without a trace of impurity in their blood, the castle’s very own squib.


	2. Chapter 2

Hours passed and Taichi logged an extensive amount of them on a handheld muggle video game system. As far as Taichi had ever seen, electronics didn’t work anywhere in the castle aside from his own little private room. The space Taichi called his own was cozy, but big enough for a few of his friends to occupy with him if he allowed them entrance through the hidden door. It was like a peculiar island of non-magic tech in the middle of the castle, the only place where most muggle devices worked. Taichi was glad for this at least since it made him able to stay at the castle.

As a child, his parents had tried to teach him a bit of magic though it had never worked. By the time kids his age started presenting magical talent, Taichi remained horribly incapable. But with his father overseas and his mother a professor at the esteemed wizarding school, there was nowhere else for Taichi to go outside the magical world. Even if it would theoretically work better for him, Taichi didn’t want to leave the castle. As uncomfortable as it was to not fit in, Hogwarts had always been home. And then the little room had been found and Taichi started living there. It was a safe place from the sneers of other students, mocking him for lacking magic talents, and it allowed him to take muggle classes online to at least educate himself like the rest of the world.

The handheld video game he spent most of his freetime with had been a gift a few years ago from Kenjirou. The muggle-born Ravenclaw student had been rather attached to it as a kid and despite reassurances that it wouldn’t work within the halls of Hogwarts, he’d stubbornly brought it with him to school anyway, still getting frustrated when he couldn’t use it. That had been when Taichi had met him, a student of his same age who didn’t immediately dismiss him for being a squib. Instead, Taichi showed Kenjirou his secret non-magic room where the game could be played. Kenjirou had been delighted at first and came over frequently to bask in the comfort of the muggle world he’d come from, but he’d quickly fallen into new love with the magic world and the video game became primitive junk compared to the wonders he could create on his own with magic. The video game had fallen into Taichi’s hands but Kenjirou never stopped spending time in Taichi’s room whenever possible.

The video game ran out of battery late in the afternoon and Taichi switched over to his computer to do schoolwork. After the events of the morning, he didn’t want to risk going back out into the rest of the castle to try and find any of his friends, though he wouldn’t have minded some company if it arrived, knocking on his door. He spent the evening alone like he did most of the time, surviving on the company of youtube and whatever else he could find to do in his room.

Curfew for students came at 10 pm and Taichi always watched his clock for that time, pausing whatever he was doing to emerge. The halls were empty as they always were at this time of night, prefects the only students allowed to be out of the dorms past curfew. Taichi was known to all of them as the one other exception to the rule, not technically a student of the school and therefore not punishable for breaking the same minor rules. Some thought he should be penalized in another way and of course, some didn’t think he belonged at the school at all. But as it remained, Taichi wandered the school at night alone, just another ghost in the halls, imagining what it would be like to walk the stone corridors with the other students of his class, on his way to his favorite subject. When he thought about it, Taichi wasn’t even sure what his favorite subject would be or which house he would belong to. Kenjirou consistently argued that he would be a Ravenclaw, but Taichi wasn’t sure he had the drive or relentless intelligence for that.

But if his group of friends had taught him anything, it was that no one embodied their house’s traits perfectly. Satori was constantly mocked for being so upbeat and optimistic when the rest of the Slytherin house frowned upon that. Eita went out of his way to help people and his fellow Slytherins focused on that instead of his sly cunning, stating he didn’t belong in the house. Tsutomu was too intense for most of the Hufflepuffs and expressed often that he thought he belonged in Gryffindor. Reon was almost too quiet and strong to be a Hufflepuff as well, though he was the kindest person Taichi knew and wouldn’t belong anywhere else. Wakatoshi didn’t have the emotion and charisma Gryffindor looked for in its students but excelled there anyway. Hayato walked the line between Gryffindor and Slytherin often with his clever plans and several of his fellow Gryffindors didn’t trust him for that. Kenjirou was constantly chastised for fighting instinctively with his fists instead of his words, something that made the other Ravenclaws turn their nose at him.

Becoming so close with his friends made Taichi wonder about the distinctions between the houses and whether they were even necessary. So many of the traits were similar and people could be placed within one of many different houses. And Taichi somehow remained at the castle despite fitting into none of the categories.

Lost in thought, Taichi blinked back to reality only steps from the kitchen door. His autopilot had led him to the second most familiar room in the school reliably, he noted, pushing through the door.

The kitchen staff was familiar with him as well and mostly friendly, taking pity on the child of the school that had never belonged anywhere. Taichi didn’t often eat with the other students because of the rule restricting everyone to the table belonging to their house, though he occasionally snuck in with Kenjirou. For that reason, he got most of his food after hours and the kitchen staff was happy to help conjure some leftovers for him to take back to his room and snack on.

“Hello, Taichi,” a kind, female chef greeted him, flicking dark hair out of her eyes. “How are you?”

“Fine.” Taichi nodded. “Do you need any help around here?”

The cook looked around at the rest of the staff, bustling about. “I think we’re almost done. Dinner was so rowdy tonight; there was a quidditch match today, right?”

“Gryffindor and Slytherin,” Taichi supplied, unsurprised that the students would all be unsettled about the game. “Slytherin won so three-fourths of the school is mad.”

Laughing gently, the chef finished compiling a plate of food for Taichi, setting it down on the counter in front of him, then biting her lip as the motion knocked over a jar of spices.

“I’ll get it,” Taichi offered, moving past her to find a rag in the familiar kitchen. She expressed her thanks as Taichi cleaned up the spill and moved to put the rag away. The work sink was in a separate room where magic collected all the dirty plates and washed them all in a vat of soapy water. Taichi wove around the dwindling kitchen staff and stepped through the doorway to the washroom — only to find the washroom wasn’t there. Instead of the large sink and animated rags scrubbing plates, Taichi found his shoes making unfamiliar noise as they stopped on a metal grate in the floor. Peering into the grate, a low growl met Taichi’s ears and a set of glowing eyes stared straight back up at him, obscured by darkness.

Too scared to make a noise, Taichi backed out of the room, heart pounding. He glanced around at the kitchen workers. None of them looked as if anything was wrong in the world past the extra mess for dinner tonight as students fought over quidditch honor. Surely one of them had to have stepped into the dish room at some point to see what he’d just seen.

Taichi set the rag down on the edge of the nearest counter and made his way back toward the kitchen entrance uneasily. It was possible he’d imagined what he saw or he’d stepped through the wrong door on accident. Or maybe the thing trapped beneath the floor was supposed to be there, placed there by the kitchen staff. Maybe it was some magical beast that would soon be making its way to the menu. There were a lot of magical things Taichi didn’t understand and thought it most likely the room had just been rearranged to fit the beast and the wash sink was somewhere else currently.

Bringing up his questions had potential to lead to some of the staff scorning him, the same as some of the students did so Taichi didn’t mention what he’d seen. Instead he waved to his chef friend and took what she’d given him, the plate of food as well as some packaged extras, knowing as she did that Taichi didn’t always leave his room during the day when the students were out and about and would need some food to last his daily hibernation inside.

Grabbing the food, Taichi fled the kitchen, making his way through the silent halls to a deserted balcony. The cool night air played with Taichi’s hair as he sat down on a stone bench, sprawling out and leaning against the wall of the school, content to stare out at the stars and search for his place in the universe. In the big school of witches and wizards, Taichi felt tiny and out of place, but in the grand scheme of infinity, Hogwarts was microscopic. Keeping that in mind, Taichi didn’t feel so out of place. In all the universe, they were all out of place.

“Taichi.”

Turning his head, Taichi spotted the two people he could share the night with on occasion. Reon and Eita were prefects for their respective houses and spent their nights patrolling the halls of the massive school, looking out for students breaking rules or other disturbances in the castle. They weren’t always on patrol every night, but when they were, Taichi relished their company. He sat upright on the bench, making room for his friends on either side of him.

Eita put a hand on Taichi’s shoulder as he plunked down on the bench. “How’s your night going?”

“It’s fine,” Taichi said, gazing up at the stars. “How about you guys? Catch anyone sneaking out of the dorms after hours?”

“No one but you,” Reon chuckled. “Are you okay after this afternoon? Tsutomu didn’t want to leave you alone but we thought you might want space.”

In truth, the near bullying incident from earlier hadn’t crossed Taichi’s mind again. After doing his own studies and then encountering that strange new room in the kitchen, Taichi didn’t care to think about the petty teasing from the Gryffindor students. “I’m fine. You guys had my back and no one got in trouble.”

“Still, I wish we could put an end to that once and for all somehow.” Eita scuffed his shoe on the ground unhappily. “It’s not fair to you and frankly, it should be common human decency. Even if you can’t use magic, you’re as much a part of wizarding society as anyone else. Everyone gets so prideful about their abilities that they forget that they’re human beings first and foremost, respecting other human beings.”

Taichi watched Eita’s expression curiously. The fifth-year had grown up with a muggle father and a witch mother and had seen his father get disregarded by the magic community as little more than a means for his mother to produce magic offspring, an untrue concept in the household where everyone was valued the same amount.

“One step at a time,” Reon reminded gently, reaching around Taichi to touch Eita’s back. We’re a lot less discriminative as a society as we were in past generations, especially with how rare pureblood families are these days. We’ll get to a point where we respect muggles as much as anyone else someday.”

Eita nodded and leaned his head on Taichi’s shoulder, looking out at the stars. “It’s all pretty small in the grand scheme of things, I guess.”

Taichi couldn’t agree more, staring at the same infinite sky.

Reon smiled gently and stood up. “We need to get back to patrolling, Eita. We have jobs to do too.”

Yawning, Eita pushed closer to Taichi. “But I’m tired. I don’t want to patrol all night.”

Taichi stood up quickly, making Eita fall and glare up at him in indignation before finally standing up himself.

“Rude. You should really respect prefects more, Taichi. If I could take points from your house, I would.”

“No you wouldn’t.” Taichi followed his two friends inside, breaking off from them to go his own way. “I’ll catch you guys later.”

The same soft, sad smile graced Reon’s expression. “You know you can come with us if you want company. Unless you have somewhere to be. Where are you off to, Taichi?”

Taichi shrugged, making his way down a hall at random. “Wherever I feel like. Let me know if you see anything out of the ordinary.”

Reon gave him a curious look, but Taichi brushed it off, his cheeks heating up. Why was he so jumpy tonight? He couldn’t think of a good reason to be nervous, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of something wrong in the pit of his stomach.

Separating from his friends, Taichi started down the hall straight ahead of him. He ended up in a wing of large classrooms and he passed sturdy, wooden doors, marked with the subject taught within them. There were no rules for Taichi in the deserted school at night, but there wasn’t much to worry about, him being a squib. Other students were punished for getting into classrooms after hours but Taichi couldn’t even enter half the rooms of the school, unable to get past the locks by magical means. He mostly roamed the corridors, exploring the same rooms that he could enter and chatting with ghosts when they appeared.

When the first rays of sunlight became visible, Taichi returned home to his little room. Curfew broke at 6 am and Taichi curled up in bed, falling asleep to the sounds of soft talking and shoes on the floor like he did every morning.


	3. Chapter 3

There wasn't much for Taichi to do during the day so that was when he usually shut off his light and slept. He could venture into the halls if he wanted to while the rest of the students were in class, but he risked running into students alone that way so he kept to himself until classes ended. Sometimes he was visited in the late afternoon by one or more of his friends, but he didn’t expect it. They all had studies to attend to and Taichi wasn’t allowed to be in any of the house common rooms and the attention he tended to attract made hanging out anywhere a bit of a risk.

Taichi didn’t mind spending the majority of his time alone; it was what he was used to. He had his own schoolwork to do and wandering the castle at night on his own was always relaxing. Somedays he didn’t see anyone at all aside from maybe a couple of the cooks when he stopped in at the kitchen for dinner or if he was joined along his walk by a ghost.

Today was starting to look like one of those days where Taichi would be isolated. It wasn’t until late in the evening when a knock sounded on his door and he stood up to let his visitor in.

To anyone outside, it looked like they were just knocking on a wall, but it was a good disguise for Taichi to hide behind, keeping the less savory students out of his hair. His friends all tried to be as discreet as possible when visiting Taichi so no one else would catch on to where he lived and so far it had worked, keeping the bullies away as long as Taichi was safe in his room.

Taichi opened the door and Kenjirou ducked inside. This late in the evening, the hall was clear of students anyway so there wasn’t much to worry about. Taichi shut the door again, turning to find his best friend seated on the bed, looking exasperated. Kenjirou’s body language wasn’t hard to read; he didn’t usually conceal what he was feeling. His shoulders were tense under his school uniform and he didn’t bother taking off his robe.

“Have you been fighting again?” Taichi sighed, sitting down at his desk.

“I didn’t do  _ anything _ ,” Kenjirou growled. “It’s always my fault somehow, even when I had nothing to do with it.”

Taichi kept his distance, watching Kenjirou without making a move. “What happened?”

“Someone let a skrewt into the Ravenclaw common house after dinner. Those are like giant scorpions and they’re super dangerous.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Taichi’s eyes widened. He knew vaguely about skrewts but had never seen one before, mostly because of how dangerous they were and that they were illegal to keep.

Kenjirou shook his head. “We trapped it and our Head Girl killed it pretty quickly. No one’s that concerned about it anymore, just curious where it came from. They all think it was me.”

From the look on his best friend’s face, Taichi could see Kenjirou was more upset about the accusation than the skrewt itself. Kenjirou may not have been the most agreeable person in Ravenclaw, but he wouldn’t put anyone in real danger and he wasn’t a trickster by any means.

“They think it was the Slytherins somehow,” Kenjirou continued, balling his hands into fists. “Everything always gets blamed on Slytherin. But obviously, Slytherins can’t get into Ravenclaw’s common room so they had to have had help on the inside and since I’m friends with Slytherins, they’re trying to get me in trouble for it.”

Out of all of Taichi’s friends, he had to admit Satori was the most likely candidate to prank another house, but even he understood the line between practical joke and danger. He would never put a giant, deadly scorpion in another house’s common room. Even if he did, Kenjirou would never play an accessory role in that. He was too grounded in rules to even consider that. Naturally, the accusation that he would break the rules would be the most infuriating part of the situation for Kenjirou. “So what do you think really happened?” Taichi asked.

“Well, unlike the rest of the school, I don’t use Slytherin as the scapegoat for any little thing that goes wrong.” Kenjirou crossed his arms. His eyes drifted to the far wall, indicating he was deep in thought. “But we can’t rule that out. I don’t think anyone from Ravenclaw would willingly let someone in though. The skrewt was behind the door to the staircase so it got into the common room when someone tried to take the stairs. If I had to take a guess, I might suggest a secret passage connecting to the stairs from somewhere else in the castle. This place is full of secret rooms and hidden corridors no one knows about. But that would still imply someone is at fault. The skrewt wouldn’t have just wandered in on its own.”

Taichi nodded. As could be expected, Kenjirou’s theory was completely plausible and made more sense than anything that had been suggested so far.

“Can I see your map?” Kenjirou stood up from the bed, finally shedding his thick school robe and draping it over the doorknob of the exit. From the look on his face, he was probably scheming and it would be foolish to stand in his way.

Taichi quickly vacated his desk, letting Kenjirou sit down instead. Kenjirou clicked around on Taichi’s computer for a few moments, pulling up a 3D software program. The biggest file on the computer by far, Taichi had constructed a digital model of the school as he knew it from other maps and from his own exploring. Without much else to do in his spare time, Taichi found it entertaining to map the magical school in a medium the rest of the magic community could barely fathom. It was hard to capture the magical elements of the school within the digital rendering, but he’d still managed to construct a fairly detailed image. Kenjirou studied the map, muttering under his breath as he panned around the area where the skrewt had appeared.

“There’s nothing,” the Ravenclaw said, frustrated with his fruitless search. “There’s no way there’s a passage in this area either if the basic architecture of the school holds true.”

“Please do not scale Ravenclaw tower looking for flaws in the architecture,” Taichi said, knowing how his best friend got when there was something he couldn’t understand.

“What the fuck...” he whispered, eyes narrowed at the computer screen.

Taichi smirked. The magical world had its own dialect and set of expletives, but Kenjirou made his muggle heritage pretty obvious when he got frustrated and fell back into the language he’d grown up around. “Give it a break for now,” Taichi advised. All of Kenjirou’s thinking was making his own head hurt. “You’ll figure it out eventually. You always do.”

That seemed to satiate Kenjirou slightly and he pushed away from the computer to look at Taichi instead. “Think they would even care if I didn’t come back to the dorms tonight? It’s almost curfew but I don’t want to go back there and they don’t want me anyway.”

If Kenjirou wasn’t such a rule-follower, Taichi was pretty sure he’d spend every night out of the dorms. In their first year, Kenjirou used to spend his nights curled in Taichi’s bed, avoiding the problems that came with belonging to a house he didn’t always get along with. Eventually, the points he lost for breaking rules guilted him into sleeping in the dorms again but the temptation presented itself from time to time again.

Taichi stood up. “I’ll walk you back.” He threw on a robe of his own, unmarked, not claiming him as property of any house. For good measure, he threw on a blue beanie marked with the Ravenclaw seal, another article of Kenjirou’s clothing he’d stolen over the years to appear to fit in better.

Kenjirou seemed reluctant, but he stood up as well and followed Taichi back out of the small room.

The evening moonlight shone in through windows, Taichi’s usual view of the castle, dim and shadowy. So close to curfew, there weren’t many students out and Taichi didn’t have to worry as much. Still, he stuck close to Kenjirou, constantly looking over his shoulder until they got to the entrance of Ravenclaw tower and Taichi turned to head back, waving. “You know where to find me if you need me.”

The clock chimed to signal 10 pm and Taichi relaxed a little more. The halls would be empty from now on and he could go where he wanted, starting with the kitchen again, hungry for dinner.

Taking the shortest route to the kitchen from Ravenclaw, Taichi walked through a different part of the castle than normal, taking him past the herbology room. Outside the front entrance, a misplaced throng of students swarmed the hall. They should have all been inside for the night. A couple shouts broke through the din of quiet talking, making Taichi hang back, around the corner from the group of seemingly angry students. They were dressed differently, Taichi noted. Some of them wore school uniforms and robes but some were clad in casual clothing or pajamas. Inspecting the attire, Taichi realized in surprise that they were all Slytherins. And none of them should have been out of the dorms at this time of night.

Taking a hesitant step forward, Taichi surveyed the crowd, looking for a familiar face. Slytherin was a dangerous crowd for him to be noticed by on his own, but curiosity urged him forward. Spotting a familiar shock of bright red hair, Taichi darted forward, touching Satori’s arm to get his attention.

The fifth-year student turned, his eyes wide as ever as they landed on Taichi and brightened his entire face. He wore street clothes, or so Taichi assumed. Satori had a bright green hoodie thrown over a yellow shirt and red jeans, looking ready to go on an adventure despite the late hour.

Taichi stepped back into a shadow before Satori could loudly alert everyone else to his presence among them. Satori followed, keeping quiet until they were away from the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Taichi asked, keeping his voice low.

Amusement shifted Satori’s eyebrows. “No one knows! Most of us were all in the common room hanging out before bed and a lot of our house members had never come back yet for the night. I voted we just leave them outside to suffer the consequences, but a couple people wanted to go round them up so we didn’t lose house points. And when they stepped outside, the door to the common room came out in the herbology greenhouse!”

Taichi had been following Satori’s tale until the last sentence. He blinked, trying not to let confusion take over his expression. “How does that work? Slytherin House is on the other side of the school in the basement.”

“Dunno!” Satori heaved an exaggerated shrug. “We went to look for our missing housemates and found them all where the entrance to Slytherin  _ should _ have been but they couldn’t get in, obviously because the whole room was across the building. Now everyone’s freaked out to go inside because what if Slytherin House gets up and walks away again while we’re sleeping and we wake up in Madagascar or something!”

Doing his best to ignore Satori, Taichi looked out over the crowd of distraught Slytherins. A few professors, looking just as frazzled stood at the head of the group, trying to calm the students and figure out what was happening, though none of them looked like they had an answer. “Where’s Eita?” Taichi mumbled, feeling a familiar sense of dread creep into his stomach.

Satori waved dismissively, draping an arm over Taichi’s shoulder. “He’s up there somewhere playing the valiant hero for the first years and pretending he’s not scared. Bless his little prefect heart; we’re all so proud of him. Maybe he’ll lead us in the charge against Gryffindor too — though I’m not sure I’d trust him with anything dangerous.”

Taichi took a step away from Satori. He could’ve been in the kitchen by now, feasting on leftovers from dinner if not for this inconveniently timed crisis. “What does this have to do with Gryffindor?”

“Who else would come up with this elaborate of a trick?” Satori asked like it was no big deal. “We hurt their feelings when we whooped their asses at quidditch. This has ‘petty revenge’ written all over it! I have a feeling Slytherin is going to be spending the night plotting some revenge back at them!”

Taichi kept silent as the misplaced Slytherin students made their way back into their dormitory, the professors apparently deeming it safe. Satori uttered a chipper farewell that Taichi ignored as he shrank back into the deep shadows to watch from a distance. A few of the professors stayed behind, presumably to stand guard in case anything else weird happened but the rest walked away. Two of them noticed Taichi and asked him if he knew anything.

Talking to professors always put Taichi on edge. Of course, they all knew who he was, but he still felt out of place speaking to them, like they were on a totally different plane of existence from him. Even his parents felt like that though. He reported that he had no idea what was going on and had only come over after the commotion had started. The professors warned him to keep his eyes open and report any suspicious activity he saw when he wandered the castle at night.

Taichi nodded his agreement and drifted away from them to go about his way. He hadn’t thought about it before, but talking to professors like this made him feel like one of the castle’s many ghosts, floating around as he wished at night, not really a part of the school but still a resident.

 

With the night’s already strange occurrences, Taichi bypassed the kitchen and headed straight for the nearest exterior door. The greenhouses were one of the spaces he could visit frequently and he faced them now, completely rearranged from how they should’ve been. From the look of things, the massive volume of Slytherin House had been transplanted into the herbology section, the greenhouses shifting out of the way as if by magic — which wasn’t an unlikely explanation.

If Taichi’s knowledge of the layout of Slytherin House was accurate, one would have to go through the common room in order to get to the herbology wing of the school, if there was a way at all to get to those rooms.

A breeze picked up, herding Taichi back inside, his head spinning with questions. Memory tickled his brain and suddenly his earlier comment telling Kenjirou not to scale Ravenclaw tower looking for mysterious passages didn’t seem like an unrealistic idea.

Taichi sure wasn’t going to do any climbing of any towers himself, but the curious circumstances had certainly piqued his interest. Talking to the professors as he had earlier, Taichi had seen very clearly that they didn’t have an explanation for this, making it a complete mystery to everyone involved.

Mind spinning, Taichi bypassed his nightly route around the various rooms of the castle he had access to and went straight back to his hidden room, seating himself at his computer and finding the 3D model of the school already open for him.

He cloned the file and went to work editing the new one, detaching the whole of Slytherin House and placing it down where it had moved to in the evening. The castle looked odd and off-balance like this, an empty gap where the missing rooms had been.

Taichi stood up again and made his way from his room back into the halls. He wanted to investigate, see if anything had appeared where Slytherin House had vanished from.

The doors were locked fast when he got there, no amount of pulling or use of leaked passwords doing any good. Taichi sighed and stalked away. He didn’t like the lower levels near Slytherin anyway. It always gave off such a dark and dangerous vibe.

Realizing how much time had passed, Taichi hurried toward the kitchen. Dawn would be arriving soon and he’d forgotten to grab food, something that didn’t happen often for him. When he got to the kitchen, Taichi found it deserted of staff, all gone for the night but not arrived yet for the next day. A plate of food sat on the otherwise clean counter and Taichi smiled slightly. His chef friend could always be relied on to be nice to him, leaving easy access to food when he needed it.

Taichi leaned against the counter and tucked into the food. It was still warm, he noted with satisfaction. Magic was great, even if he couldn’t use it himself. The quandary of the night still spun in his head and he concentrated on that for a while, content to linger in the deserted kitchen. Could it just be an accident that weird things were afoot? This was Hogwarts after all and weird was normal here. But it was hard to consider it coincidence when this was the second strange incident — no, third strange incident.

Taichi straightened up, looked straight at the door to the kitchen washroom, and chanced a half-step forward. The movement of Slytherin House and the skrewt in Ravenclaw tower were both preceded by his own strange experience the night before when the washroom had been replaced by the cold, empty room with the metal grate in the floor. Taichi hesitantly approached the door and pushed it open, holding his breath.

Inside was the washroom as he knew it, dishes stacked clean and shining on one end of the sink, the water levels low for the night. There was no sign anything had ever been amiss here.

Backing out of washroom, Taichi almost dropped the plate in his hands, faced with his chef friend, arriving for the morning.

The 6 am clock chimed and Taichi stammered a quick excuse before fleeing back out of the kitchen and through the halls to his room. With Slytherin in distress, the whole school would be tense and he didn’t want to have to run into anyone who didn’t like him. He fell asleep quick as ever, the long night of mystery-solving wearing him out thoroughly.

 

Awakening in the afternoon again, Taichi laid still in bed and listened. Normally, he could hear the sounds of students walking the halls after classes, talking and laughing. Today, only silence met his ears.

Silence in Hogwarts was never a good sign, especially with all that had been happening lately. Taichi sat up slowly, keeping his eyes on the door as if he suspected something was about to burst through. He ran a hand through his hair and changed into clean clothes, creeping outside.

There were students in the hall after all, but they all walked quietly, keeping their voices low if they talked at all, their eyes flicking between the walls, ceiling and floor. Taichi ducked back into his room and pulled the Ravenclaw hat back on before venturing out, taking in the eerie feeling of the school halls, as if everyone were in a stupor.

Without even meaning to, Taichi walked back toward the herbology wing and the new location of Slytherin House. He found a cluster of students outside again, Slytherins outnumbering members of other houses, none of them appearing happy.

A short distance away from it all, Taichi spotted a familiar face at last. He walked over to the staircase where Tsutomu sat hunched over on the bottom step, resting his chin in his hands and staring at the floor glumly until Taichi sat down next to him and he perked up some.

“Hi!” Tsutomu said, getting back some of his normal zeal. “What are you doing out today?”

“Seeing what’s going on here,” Taichi said, nodding at the scene in front of Slytherin House. “Anything new?”

Tsutomu shook his head. “The rumor of what happened spread pretty quick this morning, but I don’t think anything has changed. But unfortunately, no one can get to the herbology wing of the school except by going through Slytherin’s common house and they’re not letting anyone through so no one can get to the greenhouses.”

Taichi suppressed a sigh. Everyone here was so proud of their house, almost refusing to interact with others sometimes. Of course, Slytherin would be adamant against letting anyone through their common room, even for the sake of classes.

“Wakatoshi is really upset,” Tsutomu continued, his voice quiet. “I talked to him earlier. Herbology is his favorite subject but he can’t get over there. It doesn’t help that all the Slytherins are blaming Gryffindor for what happened.”

“Do you like herbology?” Taichi asked.

Tsutomu shrugged. “Not particularly, I guess.”

“Then why are you over here sulking about it?”

Tsutomu shrugged once again. “You know how Wakatoshi is my favorite upperclassman? B-besides you, of course! I just don’t like to see him upset and I wish I could do something to help. I want to be over there fighting and telling Slytherin to stop keeping everyone out, but I’m not brave enough. That’s why I’m a Hufflepuff and not a Gryffindor, I guess. I’m not brave enough to stand up for what I think.”

Taichi looked at the ground. “You know Hufflepuffs are brave too. That’s one of your characteristics. And you know we think the sorting rules are kind of dumb too. Everyone gets so defensive of their house, but everyone has so many similar qualities anyway it’s hard to say you didn’t belong in Gryffindor just as much as you belong in Hufflepuff.”

“You’re right.” Tsutomu looked up, smiling at Taichi, but still looking a bit downcast. “I still wish I could fix it. No one knows what’s happening or what to do about it!”

Spinning through his own theories, Taichi stood up. “Do you want to help me with something then?”

The offer seemed to raise Tsutomu’s restless spirit more than anything and he sprang to his feet as well. “Do you know something everyone else doesn’t? Are you gonna try and solve the mystery, Taichi?”

The energy Tsutomu exuded was already exhausting Taichi and he almost regretted offering. But not quite. “Is flying still your favorite class?” Taichi asked, ignoring Tsutomu’s question.

Tsutomu nodded eagerly, following Taichi to an exterior door. “It is! I’m gonna be Hufflepuff’s  ace  seeker next year for sure!”

Taichi had never ridden a broom with Tsutomu before but he was more than a little nervous. Hopefully, the third year was a little more stable than Satori, but Taichi didn’t exactly trust him to keep them right-side-up the entire time either. Already in motion, Taichi followed the younger student out to the front of the school where they could get at the broomsticks kept for flying class.

Hopping on his broom, already levitating a bit, Tsutomu grinned at Taichi with something like triumph. “Where to?”

Biting his lip, Taichi got on the broom behind Tsutomu, resting his hands on the other boy’s shoulders as they rose off the ground. He shut his eyes as Tsutomu laughed, the broom rising steadily higher. “I thought students weren’t even allowed to practice flying unsupervised!” Taichi held tighter to Tsutomu.

“I’m not!” Tsutomu laughed again, shakily taking one hand off the broom to feel the wind between his fingers. “But you asked so I figure it’s gotta be important!”

Taichi didn’t know whether to be grateful he held such high status that Tsutomu would break rules for him or to be annoyed that Tsutomu broke rules without a second thought. Sucking in a breath of cold air whipping past him, Taichi shifted to wrap his arms around Tsutomu’s waist, terrified of falling off. “Can you take us up toward Ravenclaw tower?”

Tsutomu frowned but sped off in the direction of the west side of the school. “Kenjirou isn’t going to be there, you know. He’s taking extra classes in the afternoons so he’s not free yet.”

“I know.” Taichi nodded, watching the tower come into view. “Circle for a bit. I want to check something out.”

Nodding, Tsutomu complied, slowing his pace a little to orbit the tower. Taichi visualized his map of the school, picking out where the stairs would be and pointing for Tsutomu to take them in closer.

From afar, nothing looked strange, but there were definitely markings on the side of the wall, scratches like something had been there. Considering that was where the skrewt had appeared, Taichi didn’t want to call it coincidence. There wasn’t an easy way to get to the original location of Slytherin House, but Taichi wondered if the same markings would be there too.

Satisfied, Tsutomu took them back down and Taichi wobbled off the broom in relief to be on solid ground again. There were few people he trusted to fly with him on board and Tsutomu was only tentatively on that list. Reon was the safest and Satori was the most reckless and everyone else fell somewhere in between on the spectrum. Wakatoshi was simple and steady, but Taichi didn’t think he would know what to do in an emergency situation. Hayato knew how to get them out of an emergency but he was probably just as good at getting them  _ into _ emergencies. Kenjirou lacked confidence in the air, Eita tended to overestimate his skills and Tsutomu was just too fast. All of these were reasons Taichi stayed off brooms for the most part.

Still, seeing Ravenclaw tower from the outside had been informative and Taichi wanted to share his findings in case it was important to the mystery at hand. Kenjirou at least might know what to do with the new facts.

Taichi headed back toward the castle with Tsutomu. “Is there any way we can gather the others? I want to hear if anyone else has seen or heard anything interesting.”

“Maybe a little later,” Tsutomu offered. “Dinner is soon and we all have to be there and you...”

The accidental stab hit Taichi square in the chest. Of course. Not everyone in the school slept, ate, and studied when they wanted to like Taichi. Everyone else had to be present at dinner and he wasn’t allowed to be there. He brushed off the reminder that he was different and attempted to keep talking like he was in control. “Right. After that then. We can go to the library or something.”

Tsutomu nodded and took a step toward the great hall, smiling again. “I’ll tell the others and we’ll meet you there after dinner! Thanks for flying with me, Taichi!”

Taichi went straight for the library without much else to do. Normally at this time, he might be completing some of his online schooling, but he didn’t have the energy with all the thoughts in his head.

He waited much longer than he thought he should have, the hour for dinner long past and no one appearing in the library from his group of friends or otherwise.

Finally, over an hour after dinner should have ended for the students, the library doors slammed open and Taichi’s seven friends marched in, the carefree expressions wiped from their faces and the everpresent conversation hanging behind the group like a cloud about to rain. Taichi didn’t bother speaking up. He could tell something had happened and he braced himself for the news.

Kenjirou threw himself down in the chair across the table from Taichi, his hazel eyes burning. “Whatever’s happening is just getting started.”

Taichi looked at his other friends as they took seats at the ornate wooden table as well, the only one occupied in the big, silent library.

Eita’s eyes too were dark and shadowed. It looked like he hadn’t slept much the previous night, a reasonable prediction considering the crisis with Slytherin House’s displacement. The light-haired prefect glared at the table. “Slytherin is back where it belongs. But a girl was attacked by a monster in one of the courtyards before dinner. We don’t know what it was or how it got in.”

“I still think I’d be able to figure out what kind of monster it is if you gave me more information to go off of.” Kenjirou fingered the strap of a book bag he took with him most everywhere, including meals most days.

Eita slammed one hand on the table surface, glaring. “I don’t have any more information, Kenjirou. I wasn’t there.”

Reon put a hand on Eita’s shoulder, hoping to diffuse the situation with a characteristic gentle smile. “We have a prefect meeting later tonight so Eita and I might know something else soon. For now... Everyone knows there’s something amiss in the castle. We just don’t know what.”

“It’s the same thing that happened last night in Ravenclaw tower,” Kenjirou stated. “I  _ told _ them it wasn’t my fault. Now they know it was stupid to blame me for all this. I have an alibi for this incident. I was in class right up until dinner so I couldn’t have set that up.”

“No one’s blaming you, Kenjirou,” Satori said, chuckling and reaching across the table to grab at the fourth year’s hands.

Taichi looked around at his friends’ strained expressions. “I don’t know if this helps, but Tsutomu and I did a bit of investigating this afternoon and found something interesting. We looked at Ravenclaw tower and found some scratches on the side where the stairs are like something was there. I have no idea what it could be, but it could be connected to the loose skrewt.”

Kenjirou seemed to take interest in that. His eyes found the far wall as he sank into thought.

“Should we tell someone else about that?” Eita asked, perking up as well. “It could be useful information in the investigation. I think one of the other Slytherin prefects was saying the wall by the herbology wing was kind of messed up after our house got put back in the basement. If it’s the same thing, we could be able to track other incidents.”

Wakatoshi spoke up, his deep voice commanding respect as it always did. “We should be careful what we report to whom. Information in reckless hands could only further the feud between our houses as well.”

Before anyone had a chance to agree with the statement, the library doors opened, letting in a small bunch of Slytherin students Taichi didn’t recognise.

Taichi felt their eyes on him and noted how Satori and Hayato on either side of him pressed closer, their way of defending him from outside attack. The Slytherins approached the table, watching Taichi the entire time, scowls decorating their faces.

One of the students, a brunet, crossed his arms and stood in front of Taichi. “That’s him, the  _ squib _ , the one who doesn’t belong here, the only one without an alibi, the one who lets monsters into the school.”

Tsutomu was first to stand up from the table though the others were quick to follow. The third-year narrowed fierce eyes at the Slytherins. “Lots of people don’t have alibis! Taichi was in here and didn’t do anything!”

Satori, characteristically unable to keep a straight face, was laughing. “Taichi? He can’t use magic; how’s he supposed to let monsters into the school? How’s he supposed to throw Slytherin House across the school? Think he picked it up and moved it with his noodle arms?”

Taichi didn’t even mind Satori’s dig at his build, focused on his adversaries.

The one in the lead smirked. “Maybe that’s just what he wants us all to think. Are you really magic-impaired? Or are you tricking us all into thinking that so you can do your dirty work unsuspected?”

“I’m... a squib,” Taichi promised quietly. He’d never had to defend himself by assuring his lack of magic ability before. It didn’t hurt to admit anymore, but it hurt to be accused and taken advantage of.

The Slytherin’s wand was in his hand and pointed at Taichi as the incantation for the knockback jinx tumbled from his mouth. “Flipendo!”

Fully expecting to be hurled against the far wall, Taichi flinched. Instead, Hayato stepped deftly in front of him, raising his own wand.

“Protego!” he yelled, shooting a blue shield that deflected the jinx into the air where it harmlessly evaporated against the ceiling.

The crew of Slytherins froze. The next movement Taichi saw was Wakatoshi reaching out in the same instant Kenjirou lunged forward, fists raised. The smaller Ravenclaw was no match against Wakatoshi, his rage contained momentarily as the brown-haired lead Slytherin scoffed and walked away, his companions trailing after him without a word or backwards glance.

“I’m gonna fucking pummel them into the ground!” Kenjirou cursed, kicking a chair over as Wakatoshi released him.

Everyone else was relatively quiet, their eyes on Taichi. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to speak. If anything, he wished he knew magic so he could find a way to disappear on the spot. But since he didn’t, he trudged toward the library doors silently. The others fell into step in a protective arc around him, prepared to walk him back to the hidden doorway of his home for the evening where he’d be safe.


	4. Chapter 4

The clock chimed for 10 pm and Taichi emerged from his room, shoulders still tense, hoping there would be no reason to encounter anyone else in the halls at night. Considering the recent inexplicable occurrences, Taichi didn’t know if he wanted to be out at all. There were monsters on the loose apparently and rooms that moved across the school and if he found himself in a tricky situation, he had no magic to defend himself with. He would grab dinner and flee back inside his room and refuse to leave or something cowardly like he always did in situations he couldn’t control like this.

Pushing through the kitchen door, Taichi found the cook staff a little more on edge than usual. They were mostly finished cleaning up from dinner by now though dinner had gone late because of the incident beforehand and the subsequent discussion with all the students about what was happening.

Taichi’s chef friend greeted him with a shaky smile and moved about, collecting some leftovers for him to take. Taichi kept quiet and watched her, wondering if he should say something about the washroom the first night. It probably wasn’t important now that everyone knew something was wrong. Instead, Taichi just took the food with a quiet “thank you” and moved back out of the kitchen. When he opened the door however, he didn’t find himself in the same hallway he’d entered from. The entrance to the kitchen was now located on top of the school, far from where it should’ve been.

Eyes wide, Taichi stepped out of the kitchen onto the astrology deck, a full view of the night sky awaiting him. A couple member of the kitchen staff took notice of the cool breeze flowing through the open door and they followed Taichi outside.

Turning in a full circle, Taichi didn’t think he could find words to explain what was happening. Defying all rules of physics, the kitchen was just stuck on the observation tower, the exterior walls covered with the same scratch marks as Ravenclaw Tower had. It looked like someone had cut the kitchen carefully out of the middle of the school and pulled it out without disturbing anyone, placing it on top of the castle like a messed up 3D puzzle.

Some of the staff were panicking, but Taichi kept quiet, stepping further outside. If the kitchen was here, was something else in place of the kitchen? Taichi left the deck, still holding the plate of food though it was less interesting to him now. He nibbled as he walked the distance back to where the kitchen should have been and finished the plate by the time he arrived, not realizing how hungry he was. A part of him still screamed to run back to his room and hide from whatever nonsense was going on around him, but curiosity and fear of being unexpectedly eaten pushed him on.

Laying a hand on the door, Taichi pulled it open, finding himself in a dark room he’d never seen before in the castle. After living there his whole life, there weren’t rooms in the castle he didn’t recognize on sight. This room was new somehow.

The interior was dark and badly lit by one torch on one wall. Fear rooted Taichi to the spot in the doorway, straining to hear or see anything at all. The sound of large claws scratching the ground made the skin on the back of Taichi’s neck stand on end. His breathing sped up like he was sprinting away but instead he stayed rooted to the spot. The shadows in front of him shifted and deepened as something moved nearer.

His body finally deciding to respond, Taichi bolted, running down hallways at random, panting the entire way. He wheeled around stone corners, finding his way by torchlight in the darkness of midnight. If the shadow creature had been chasing him at some point, it had given up, leaving Taichi very alone in the deserted hallways.

Eventually, he knew he was going to have to get moving again, but he stayed put where he was, at the bottom of a stairwell. Taichi blinked and looked around. He was on his way back toward the astrology tower where the kitchen had ended up. He wondered if it was still there. Taking a deep, stuttering breath, Taichi took a step up the spiraling staircase, looking over his shoulder again every few steps. When he reached the thick, wooden door and pushed it open, Taichi was met with the observation deck as it should have been, clear and open.

It was a good night to look at the stars, he noted. He’d spent a few nights up here with Kenjirou when he needed to do astrology homework and Taichi knew a bit of the science behind the magic. Of course, that hadn’t been as enjoyable than just spending time with his best friend without worrying about anyone else infringing on their comfortable silence.

Stars aside, the top of the tower was covered with the same scratches, evidence of whatever was moving rooms around the school. If the kitchen was no longer misplaced on top of the tower, was it back where it was supposed to be? And if it was, what had become of the creature Taichi had discovered there? The kitchen staff was all still inside, Taichi presumed. They would have been transported with the kitchen both times and maybe they could have seen something.

Taichi jogged back down the steps, slowing his pace at the bottom, still wary of the beast. He walked through the center of the great hall, making sure his footsteps were silent on the stone floor. Down the hallway toward the kitchen, Taichi’s stomach sank. The stonework of the wall lay crumbled on the ground in a pile, the doorframe obliterated. And yet, as Taichi stepped closer, he saw the kitchen workers all inside, frightened but safe.

There was no trace of the creature Taichi had encountered, but something had broken down the wall and when he looked closer, Taichi noticed marks of claws along the hallway floor. The creature was loose in the castle.

With all the world spinning around him, Taichi felt dizzy. He didn’t know what to do, who to go to. If he were any other student in the school, he could just run back to the dorms and tell one of the prefects. Taichi couldn’t get into any student dorms though. He didn’t know how to find help. He was utterly alone in a big scary world full of danger that he had no hope to face. When he thought about it, that had always been the case. He wasn’t a wizard and yet, he lived at Hogwarts, so desperate to fit in with the world he should have been a part of. If not for his friends, he wouldn’t have survived this long at a school where the majority of the students didn’t want him around. He could’ve been hurt or killed just last night by the Slytherin students if his friends hadn’t defended him. And now, in the middle of this school-wide crisis, Taichi was alone. At the end of the day, he was always alone, just pretending that he wasn’t. He had no house and therefore no home. He didn’t belong here and his luck so far wouldn’t hold up against the massive monster he’d narrowly evaded encountering.

Fear threatened to choke Taichi and he sprinted away from the kitchen, straight back to his hidden room, immediately feeling comfortable again amongst the muggle technology. To hell with magic and Hogwarts and all the danger that came along with it. He was going to wait out the storm right here in his room. He’d come out when the danger was gone and he’d leave Hogwarts for good. He was capable of surviving on his own somewhere else if he had just a bit of help from his parents. Either way, he needed to get out of the magical world. Taichi crawled into his bed, pulling the blankets up over his head, ready to stay like that for as long as he needed to.

 

Time passed without regulation. Taichi had no idea if minutes or days had passed before he heard soft knocking on the wall outside his room. He laid as still as possible and hoped the sound would go away. He was safe in here, in his own little world. His friends, if that was who was still insistently knocking, needed to be a part of their world, fighting with magic and strength where Taichi fell short every time.

“Taichi!” The voice outside was Kenjirou’s. “Get up or I will magic my way into your stupid little room. I don’t care if I break everything but I’m getting in somehow!”

Heaving a sigh, Taichi stood up and opened his door from the inside. If it had been anyone else, he would’ve called the bluff, but he wouldn’t put it past Kenjirou to actually break down the wall separating them.

Sun streamed in through the castle’s tall windows, giving Taichi a very different view than what he was used to. Instead of business as usual in the daytime, the halls were empty of students. As Taichi closed the door of his room behind him, he scanned the surrounding corridor, on high alert for danger. Watching the other students, they were all headed in the same direction. None of them spared Taichi a derogatory glance or seemed to notice him at all.

Taichi looked down at Kenjirou by his side, his fellow fourth-year looking just as tense and nervous.

Returning the glance, Kenjirou took a step in the direction the other students were headed. His voice lacked its usual sharpness as if he were tired. “Come on, we’re all going to the great hall. It’s getting worse and classes are canceled until we get this figured out. You live here too so you need to be with the rest of us until it’s safe to move around the castle.”

“Did something else happen?” Taichi followed a half-step behind Kenjirou. He’d been trying his best not to think about the previous night’s events, but reality crashed in and Taichi realized that he’d left a monster potentially running around the school and he hadn’t made a single effort to tell someone before retreating back into his home. If the beast had hurt someone, it was on his hands as well.

Taichi never went to the great hall while it was occupied. The great hall was always too densely packed with people who didn’t like him. He felt himself tense up as he stepped through the wide doors, but once again, no one seemed to mind that he was there. More students were filing in, and it appeared everyone in the school was gathered in the largest room of the castle. The professors and staff stood at the head of the room, talking to students who approached them and discussing quietly amongst themselves in hushed voices that gave away concerned glances around the room.

The students present in the great room weren’t organized at the four large tables by house like they usually were, instead strewn around the room in small clusters. Some sat at the tables while others sat on the floor in groups. As was customary, they mostly stuck with members of their own houses, very few straying into other clans and groups.

Kenjirou slowed his pace once inside the great room, looking out over the crowd for familiar faces. Before he could locate any of their other friends, the headmaster clapped his hands loudly and the low roar of conversation quieted. Kenjirou tugged on Taichi’s shirt and they took some empty seats at a table to listen to instruction.

The first notification was of the large beast discovered overnight by a couple prefects. Taichi felt sick. He should’ve found someone and reported the monster earlier. The two Gryffindor prefects who had discovered it were currently being tended to in the hospital wing, neither seriously injured. Still, it didn’t make the guilt in Taichi’s chest loosen its hold on him. The prefects had captured and killed the beast before too much more damage could be done and so far, that was the worst attack the castle had seen.

In addition, the attacks seemed to be getting more frequent. Hufflepuff students had woken up and left their dorm to find themselves in the potions room instead of their commonhouse. Several of the classrooms had been shifted as well and a few smaller outside creatures had been found scuttling through the building. Classes were canceled until further notice as there was no good way to keep the students safe from a threat no one understood yet. With the danger only growing worse, the headmaster had planned on shutting the school down temporarily to keep the students safe. However, the school had woken up early that morning to find all doors and windows out of the building blocked, leaving them all trapped inside the school.

The worst news of all, the headmaster relayed with a somber expression, was that the precision of the attacks implied that the person behind this had infiltrated the school’s defenses without raising suspicion. It could be assumed that this person was either very skilled, or had a reason to be inside the school — potentially a student or staff member.

Someone from the crowd of students loudly suggested they investigate the Slytherins since they were the first to be misplaced and clearly, they were the only ones who could be behind this. The anonymous student was quickly hushed, but Taichi could feel the tension in the room rising.

After announcing that everyone would be staying in the great room together while staff investigated, the headmaster stepped down, the speech over.

Kenjirou rose from the table just as quickly, spying Satori a short distance away. Taichi followed close behind, adding himself to the unusual cluster of students crowding around Satori.

The redhead was seated on the floor of the great hall, eyes half-shut in concentration, a crystal ball between his fingers.

“See anything?” One of Satori’s fellow Slytherins stood over his shoulder, squinting at the ball.

Satori shook his head slightly, breathing very shallowly as if he was holding onto something tightly and too deep of a breath would make him lose his grip. “Nothing... I can’t see anything about who’s behind this. I don’t get it... They must be obscuring themselves somehow.”

Another student at Satori’s side, a Gryffindor, crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “So even the ‘divination master’ of the school can’t figure it out? Good thing we don’t just rely on so-called seers to help us. I prefer a straight fight anyway.”

Kenjirou’s expression contorted into anger and he took a step toward the Gryffindor girl, his hand already reaching for his wand. “Hey, don’t put him down that way! If the person behind this doesn’t want to be found, there’s nothing Satori can do. He’s ten times the divination expert you’ll ever dream to be!”

Taichi clamped a hand on Kenjirou’s shoulder, keeping him from lunging at the other student. “Let it go,” Taichi whispered.

Still glaring, Kenjirou relaxed his stance slightly then redirected his look onto Satori.

A bit of hurt from the insult flashed in Satori’s eyes, but he covered it up with a bright smile as he stood up, returning the crystal ball to his pocket. The small crowd dispersed as Satori turned his attention onto his friends. “You guys made it! I was a little worried, just, y’know, Taichi, with all the wandering around you do at night. Now that this is officially an emergency, you really shouldn’t have had to be alone up until now.”

“It’s fine,” Taichi promised. “I’ve been careful. Do we know anything else about the situation?”

Satori shook his head. “What the headmaster said is as much as any of us know. Things got real weird last night, even aside from the beast. Obviously, all the Gryffindors are pissed off because two of their prefects got hurt and Hufflepuff’s dorms got moved sometime in the night. They all walked out of Hufflepuff House into the potions room instead of the normal hallway! No one knows how it happens either but sometimes when you walk into a room, you walk back out into a completely different room on the other side of the castle. No one has a good explanation yet.”

Taichi considered the quandary, comparing it with the information he had. “When I was out last night, I went to the kitchen and then stepped out onto the stargazing tower. I went back to where the kitchen was supposed to be and it was just a dark room. I don’t know for sure, but I think the monster may have been in there. A little later, the beast wasn’t there but the kitchen was back in place. It makes no sense, but that’s all that I know that might be new information.

Kenjirou frowned, his eyes absently tracing the far wall. “So... Someone is trying to put monsters inside of the school, but they can only do it by moving rooms around?”

“Maybe it has something to do with the space left behind when they move a room,” Taichi suggested. “I don’t know how that would work magically, but that’s all I can think of.”

“We should tell someone,” Kenjirou looked between his two friends. “Someone we can trust but someone who might be able to do something with it. I don’t think any of us are allowed to leave the great room anyway. If we’re going to stop the creatures getting in, everyone needs to know that when a room gets misplaced, its usual location is where something is going to pop up.”

Satori nodded enthusiastically, looking around the chaotic room. “That’s a good clue! Let’s find... Eita’s over there! We can go bother him!”

Stealing silent glances around the great hall, Taichi followed close to his friends. Eita looked just as agitated as everyone else, his posture closed off and his arms crossed defiantly over his chest. As Taichi got closer he could see Eita was arguing with a Gryffindor, his own black robe emblazoned with the prefect badge.

Eita stalked away from the Gryffindor, a scowl darkening his expression. Satori jumped ahead to grab his friend’s arm, shouting a greeting at him with a bit too much enthusiasm for the situation. Eita rolled his eyes, his frown decreasing when he saw Taichi. “Sorry. Did you need something, Taichi?”

Taichi watched the Gryffindor walking away as well, a haughty expression on his face. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Eita said in a tone that suggested it wasn’t fine. “Gryffindor is missing two prefects right now and I was going to offer to help. They don’t trust me though... He said for all he knew, I could be the one behind this with all my Slytherin friends.”

Laughing, Satori clapped Eita on the back. “Don’t sweat it. Gryffindor’s always like that. They don’t get help from  _ anybody _ because they’re the best.”

Kenjirou jammed his hands into his pockets. “How did you even land in Slytherin? You’re so nice.” He spat the last word as if ‘nice’ was an insult.

Eita narrowed his eyes, stepping toward Kenjirou. “You don’t have to poke fun just because the hat sorted you wrong. It just saw ‘smartass’ and put you in Ravenclaw, thinking you were actually smart.”

Satori inserted himself between the two, pulling Eita away as he relayed the conclusions they’d come to about the creatures appearing in rooms that vanished.

Almost immediately, Eita’s demeanor changed and he looked interested, turning with Satori to dusk their heads and talk quietly between themselves.

Taichi’s senses were still on high alert and he saw the girl out of the corner of his eye as she approached.

She was short and looked friendly enough. She was a Ravenclaw by the look of her robes and the Head Girl by the badge pinned to her chest. The girl glanced at Taichi for less than an instant before turning her attention on her real target. She rested a hand lightly on Kenjirou’s shoulder, pulling him away. “Hey. Come join the rest of us. We’re going to talk stuff out and get into a buddy system of some sort so we make sure everyone stays safe.”

Kenjirou nodded and started to follow her toward the large cluster of Ravenclaws at the back of the great hall, pulling Taichi along with him by the sleeve of his shirt. “That’s okay; I’m just going to stick with Taichi no matter what.”

The girl slowed her pace, shooting Kenjirou a look Taichi couldn’t read. She licked her lips. “We’re all going to be safe here in the great hall together and there shouldn’t be any reason for us to leave this room. The buddy system is in case of an emergency and if an emergency situation does arise, I’d like you to be with someone who can have your back. If something happened to you because there was no one around who could cast a quick spell to get you out of there—”

“You’re wrong.” Eyes flashing, Kenjirou stopped short, his stance wide, arms crossed over his chest, staring straight at the prefect girl.

Taichi knew what was coming next. He tentatively reached out, tapping Kenjirou’s arm. He leaned down slightly to whisper in his best friend’s ear. “This isn’t worth fighting about. She’s right. Another witch or wizard would be able to keep you safe if—”

“Stop it!” Kenjirou pulled away, glaring between both Taichi and the Head Girl in turn. “I trust Taichi, not anyone else. I don’t even  _ belong _ with the rest of Ravenclaw. I’m different. It’d be easier for everyone if I wasn’t even here. If Taichi can’t be my buddy, I don’t want one at all. At least let him stay with me.”

The girl’s jaw tightened. She looked like she was struggling to find the right words to make everyone involved happy. Little did she know, there was no such thing as compromise to someone like Kenjirou. “This is a crisis situation, Kenjirou. We all need to be able to look out for one another.”

“Then I don’t want to affiliate myself with Ravenclaw anymore. You’re just as pretentious as the rest!” The storm swirling in Kenjirou’s gaze intensified as he looked at Taichi, probably about to suggest something over-the-top and dramatic.

Instead, Taichi reached out and pushed Kenjirou toward the Head Girl. “Stay with your house, Kenjirou.” The girl caught Kenjirou by the wrist, allowing Taichi to swiftly part the crowds and slink back through the doors of the great hall, into the rest of the school, into the unknown. It would have been better if he had stayed in his room to wait out the storm like he’d been planning. The last thing he needed was for Kenjirou to start making reckless decisions on his account. At this rate he would actually get himself disowned from Ravenclaw. As much as he fought it, he did belong there, Taichi knew.

The pattern of hallways Taichi took back to his hidden room were pleasantly empty. A few members of the staff were out, trying to track down clues and hunt monsters, but all the students were in the great hall. It reminded Taichi of breaks from class when the sun shone in the windows but the corridors were empty and he was actually able to roam freely during the day without risk of mishap.

Taichi’s shaking hand found the door to his room and he pulled it open. A breath of cold air met him on the other side of it. It wasn’t the small, bedroom he was used to, cozy and full of his possessions. The interior was pitch black like there were no lights and it seemed to be filled with a sort of presence.

New dread seeped through Taichi. He shouldn’t have left the great hall. Maybe his pride had been wounded, but at least he had been physically safe there. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, but Taichi thought he heard a low hiss from within the space his room should’ve been. He backed up slowly, hardly daring to breathe. From the other direction, he thought he heard footsteps on the stone floor, but didn’t dare believe it until he was joined in the hall by Reon.

Taichi’s breath came out in shaky gasps and he stepped behind his friend, watching a large creature slither through the doorway. It was long and snake-like with frills around its neck. The creature hissed, eyes focused on the two tiny humans in front of it.

“Stay back.” Reon’s voice barely reached Taichi’s ears, fear clouding his senses. The Hufflepuff stepped forward, raising his wand at the creature.

Before Reon had a chance to cast a spell, the monster’s head darted forward, attacking Reon with its fangs. Reon danced aside most of the way, but Taichi watched in horror as the creature stood back up, a bit of fabric stuck in its mouth from Reon’s robe and blood running down its chin.

Reon, however, barely seemed fazed. He raised his wand quickly, shouting ‘stupefy!’ at the creature and watching as it fell to the ground, stunned. Only then did he turn to look at his other arm and the gash splitting it open.

Taichi rushed forward, ready to apologize for everything, for running away, for making Reon save him, for being useless.

“Episkey,” Reon murmured, the cut on his arm healing instantly. He looked up at Taichi, an understanding smile on his face. “It’s okay. No need to apologize. Everything is okay. Come back to the great hall with me?”

Unable to conjure words, Taichi nodded, walking quickly behind Reon. He had almost gotten his friend seriously hurt and as much as he tried to tell himself he wasn’t worthless, it was all his fault. If he had magic, he wouldn’t have needed Reon to save him. He wouldn’t be in this mess at all if he could only use magic. Every taunt shot his way was right. He didn’t belong here any more than a muggle did. Who cared who his parents were; he was a squib and he needed to find his life outside of Hogwarts or he would get someone hurt again.

Reon ushered Taichi through the crowded great hall to where most of the Hufflepuffs had gathered. Even if no one was forced to stay with their house groups, they all gathered with their clan on instinct. It didn’t make Taichi feel any more welcome. From the back of the large room, the Ravenclaws were gathered in a large circle, talking in low voices, heads ducks together. Even Kenjirou was talking, a serious expression on his face like when he was scheming. He seemed focused on his fellow Ravenclaws, already forgetting that Taichi had gone running from the room minutes earlier. There was nothing Taichi could do to pretend he fit in.

The Slytherins and Gryffindors were in their own huddles, the atmosphere between those groups individualistic to them. Hufflepuff, as Taichi approached them, didn’t appear to be scheming, just talking amongst themselves, even smiling and laughing on occasion. Their tactic seemed to be weathering the storm with a brave face on, rather than stressing about the dark magic going on outside. Taichi didn’t blame them either.

They quieted as Taichi and Reon approached, looking up expectantly, a hint of apprehension filling all of their expressions. Even here, Taichi wasn’t going to find acceptance. One of the younger students pointed at Reon. “Your arm!”

“It’s fine; I healed it.” Reon answered quickly. “There’s another creature in the hallway and I could only stupefy it on my own. We should go and disable it a little more permanently.”

Cutting through the whispers of agreement, a soft whimper caught Taichi’s attention. Near the center of the group, Tsutomu had tears in his eyes. He looked between Reon, Taichi, and the other Hufflepuffs. “We can’t... We don’t know what’s going on out there and we don’t have a chance to fight it.”

“We can fight it,” Reon assured calmly. “We’re all going to work together. Do you want to come with? We’ll all make sure nothing can touch you.”

Tsutomu shook his head. “I don’t want to! I’m not brave enough; go ask a Gryffindor!”

A weight seemed to settle in Taichi’s chest. Tsutomu was wrong. The third-year wizard was plenty brave. He probably had as much aptitude for Gryffindor as Hufflepuff. The only thing standing in his way was himself. He had himself convinced that he wasn’t capable of the feats he thought others were. Taichi had seen him disregard rules to take him up on broomstick to investigate the markings on the side of Ravenclaw Tower just the other day and he’d stood up to every bully Taichi had ever faced just as strongly as anyone else. Whatever was going around this school, whatever physical damage it could inflict was nothing on what it was doing to their spirits.

A couple other Hufflepuff upperclassmen had stood up from the group. “Working with the other houses isn’t a bad idea. Should we see if anyone else wants to go out with us?”

The small group migrated away from the rest of Hufflepuff and Taichi followed at a distance, not sure where to be. They merged with the Gryffindor camp, suggesting their proposition to the others.

One of the Gryffindor boys stood up, looking fierce. “New house competition! See who can kill the most monsters! Fifty points per villain!”

The Hufflepuffs rolled their eyes, straying from the Gryffindors. “I don’t know why everything has to be a competition with them.”

Taichi stayed behind, watching the rambunctious house in their revelries. They immediately started scheming, shouting across the great hall for Slytherin to join them in the battle for honor. All the upperclassmen were automatically enlisted in the attack force, receiving their orders from the most enthusiastic of the bunch.

Out of the group, Hayato pushed his way toward Taichi. Usually one to get excited about adventures like this, he looked frustrated now. “Can you believe this?” he asked Taichi, his arms crossed in a disgusted stance. “I liked Hufflepuff’s idea of teaming up to actually do some good out there. I think we’re all more powerful together. They’re all just talking about the honor they’re going to bring Gryffindor House when this is all over and we’ve killed the most monsters. Who cares about Gryffindor honor in a time like this. We all need to be fighting for the school as a whole.”

“Yeah...” Taichi couldn’t come up with anything useful to say. He agreed wholeheartedly. He had personally seen what his friends accomplished together, using the skills they had, embodying each of the Hogwarts houses. In his opinion, there wasn’t much a combination of the four houses couldn’t do when they worked as a team. They’d all kept him safe so far and everyone knew he was doomed from the start.

Without anyone to try and stop them, the Gryffindors drew their wands and marched toward the doors of the great hall, closely followed by Slytherin.

Hayato hung back from the group until a sixth-year girl approached him, a question in her eyes. “You coming?”

Shaking his head, Hayato stood by Taichi. “I think that group of Hufflepuffs are still going to go out too. I might go with them. I don’t know if I want to go with you guys.”

“You’re an upperclassman,” the girl said defiantly. “You have to. It’s for Gryffindor honor. You’re not going to sacrifice that, are you?”

“Maybe I will. There are bigger things at stake here, don’t you think? If competition and pride is all there is to Gryffindor, then I don’t want to be one.” Turning on his heel, Hayato stalked away from the girl, motioning Taichi to follow. He didn’t stop his march until he found an empty table and sat down, resting his elbows on the tabletop.

“What’s wrong?” Taichi asked quietly, taking a seat beside him. “You know Gryffindor is a little prideful sometimes, but that’s never stopped you from going on an adventure with them before.”

Restless fingers shifting, Hayato picked at the wood surface of the table, pulling up little splinters. “There’s a bigger picture here. I don’t think they see it, but I’m standing up for what I believe in. I’ve been told that each one of us carries the tradition of our house. I’m not going to pass on the same pride I was taught. I want to help make a future of Gryffindor that isn’t so focused on the glory.”

It all made sense to Taichi, but he could see how frustrated Hayato was getting, sitting still while the rest of his house took to the corridors of the school to hunt. “You can still go out there. I know you want to fight.”

Hayato looked a little guilty. “I don’t want to leave you alone. I know it hasn’t been the greatest day for you either.”

“Go. I’m fine. Protect the school.”

Clapping Taichi once on the back, Hayato stood and joined the small ragtag group of mixed-house students, also about to embark.

Taichi scanned the room. A lot of the upperclassmen had left, but the younger students all stayed behind. That left the great hall occupied with everyone Taichi’s age and younger.

Kenjirou was among them, still looking a little upset — but then again, when didn’t he look pissed about something? Spotting his friend, the Ravenclaw broke off from the dispersing group of his house and wandered over to the table, sitting down on Taichi’s other side. “You’re here. When you ran off, I wanted to follow you but Reon saw what happened and said he’d go after you himself.”

The memory of the brief fight flooded back into Taichi’s mind and he found himself scanning the room for Reon, ultimately deciding he had probably already left the relative safety of the great hall with the others. “He got hurt. It was my fault.”

Unfazed, Kenjirou looked at the doors out of the great room, shut again now that most everyone had decided whether they were staying inside or leaving to fight. “It wasn’t a big deal though. He’s fine and you’re fine and that’s what matters.”

“If I could use magic, this wouldn’t have happened though.”

“I don’t know why you do this to yourself,” Kenjirou said, matter of factly. “You’re always playing the ‘what if’ game with things you can’t change. There’s plenty of things you can do because you’re not magic. I think our first clues in this entire investigation came from your computer model of the school and deciding it wasn’t possible for the skrewt to have gotten into Ravenclaw tower. You’ve also seen a lot more than the rest of us have since you can go outside at night. We wouldn’t have the theory about creatures appearing in the space where rooms used to be if you hadn’t witnessed what you did.”

“Is it worth getting people hurt because I can’t defend myself?” Taichi kicked a foot out lazily. “Your Head Girl was right. I’m not safe to be around when we need to depend on each other to stay safe.”

“I told the rest of Ravenclaw about the theory and we devised a bit of a defense tactic. The other houses are out hunting but the Ravenclaw upperclassmen are right outside the doors and I think they have a pretty good shot at keeping us all safe thanks to what you found out. So yes, I think it is worth it.”

Taichi did appreciate the assurance, but he couldn’t shake the useless feeling. Around him, underclassmen from every house were practicing spells and arming themselves for a battle if it came for them. All Taichi could do was sit at the wooden table and mope while everyone else rescued him, consoled him, protected him. “I’m surprised you’re not out there yourself. Castle defense seems like your kind of scene. You’re a fourth year; they can’t exactly force you to stay back.”

Kenjirou scoffed, his expression darkening. “Apparently, I’m a flight risk or something. They’re not letting me go outside because I might get some crazy fucking idea and get myself killed. They clearly don’t understand my motives, but there isn’t much I can say at this point. They don’t trust me and that’s their problem.”

In any other situation, Taichi could have laughed. Kenjirou wasn’t an easy person to understand and after four full years, Ravenclaw, the cleverest house in the school, still didn’t know him as well as Taichi did. It was likely because they didn’t bother to know him the way Taichi did, but that was their loss. Taichi would always appreciate the unique genius Kenjirou possessed, especially since it usually saved him a lot of effort thinking. But given the situation at hand, Taichi wasn’t laughing. He could see it on Kenjirou’s face how much he resented being left out, especially since the plan to defend the great room had probably been his from the beginning. Growing up in a muggle family, Kenjirou had never fit in. He had high hopes when he started at Hogwarts, but even that wasn’t picture perfect. There was no doubt he belonged in Ravenclaw, but he was still different from the majority of them. Taichi knew pretty well himself how much not fitting in could hurt.

Instead, they sat together in relative silence. Kenjirou lazily cast non-verbal spells, untying one of Taichi’s shoes and pulling it off his foot. The shoe found its way across the room and tripped a Slytherin before racing back over to fall, inanimate and useless in front of Taichi again. Taichi found himself smiling at the mischief his best friend could cause, barely lifting a finger. It was a good thing he didn’t put his mind to destruction often or the castle would have fallen apart long before this incident.

Close to an hour had passed when the wide double doors swung open and the questing crowd of Gryffindors streamed back in. They looked triumphant, though some of them wore blood-stained clothing. Taichi found himself rising to his feet, looking through the crowd of warriors. He glanced down at Kenjirou. “Did Wakatoshi go with them? I know Hayato went out with another group but...”

With courage Taichi didn’t think he’d ever have for himself, Kenjirou marched over to one of the Gryffindor upperclassmen at the head of the group, asking about their friend in a stern tone.

The tall boy squinted at Kenjirou. “Right, you’re the little Ravenclaw he hangs out with sometimes... We were actually coming to find one of you guys. There’s something weird going on in the dungeon and he... He’s still down there.”


	5. Chapter 5

“You left him there!?” Kenjirou shifted immediately into a defensive position, his hand hovering over his wand.

Without waiting for an answer, Kenjirou bolted for the doors. Absently, Taichi understood Ravenclaw’s assessment that he would be a flight risk as defense. Taichi looked between the Gryffindor and his best friend, choosing to sprint after Kenjirou. The last thing Taichi needed was for Kenjirou to be out in the halls of the school alone while rooms shifted around him and things tried to eat him. Maybe Taichi couldn’t defend him, but he wouldn’t let him be alone.

Through the halls, Taichi caught up to Kenjirou, following close behind as they raced toward the school’s dungeons, home to Slytherin House, the potions classroom, actual abandoned dungeons from long ago, and a lot of foul things Taichi didn’t spend much time around. Still, he knew his way around pretty well and he took the lead as they crossed from the open access basement into the dungeon. A lifetime spent in this castle with nothing much to do made for a lot of time spent exploring forbidden places.

The sound of footsteps made Taichi slow his pace. In the dim lighting, he couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from, but it sounded like they were surrounded. Taichi dropped back to stand beside Kenjirou, head on a swivel, trying to make anything out in the bad lighting.

From in front of them, a figure stepped out of the shadows. Taichi exhaled in relief. It was Wakatoshi, not looking nervous in the least. From behind, a few more students skidded into sight, breathing hard like they’d been running. Reon and the Ravenclaw Head Girl who had pushed Taichi away before were among them. They had probably followed when Taichi and Kenjirou had taken off, seeking to protect the younger students.

Taichi watched Kenjirou fall back into a defensive stance, like he was being surrounded by adversaries instead of allies. Biting his lip, Taichi took a step forward, looking at Wakatoshi. “Are you okay?”

The elder Gryffindor nodded. “I was coming to find you, Taichi.”

“Me?” Taichi knew everyone’s attention was on him now. “What did I do?”

“I have been sent to retrieve you. There is someone own here who wishes to speak to you.” Wakatoshi said mechanically, making the hairs on the back of Taichi’s neck stand on end. “He wants to talk to you. He sent me to go get you.”

Taichi couldn’t fathom why anyone would send for him, especially the hidden someone hiding in the school’s dungeon, presumably the one causing all of the chaos upstairs. No one was moving, but Taichi could feel his heart racing as Wakatoshi’s eyes bored into him, unblinking. Something wasn’t right and Taichi glanced at Kenjirou for confirmation.

Kenjirou was still poised for attack, his wand drawn. His voice was just above a murmur, barely loud enough for Taichi to hear. “Don’t move. He could be under a curse. It looks like mind control.”

The fear in Taichi’s heart weighed heavier on him now. “Wakatoshi... someone sent you to get me?”

“Yes. And you will be delivered to them willingly or by force, whatever it takes.”

That confirmed the theory of mind-control of some sort. Wakatoshi would never make a threat like that. The real problem was what to do about the threat. But the decision was fairly simple. Taichi stepped forward. “Alright. As long as everyone else is safe, I’ll do whatever you want me to.”

“Taichi!” Kenjirou hissed, raising his wand at Wakatoshi, though his stance had lost some confidence.

“Is that reasonable?” Taichi asked, speaking loudly. “I’ll go willingly and everyone else is safe? Is that how this works?”

Wakatoshi nodded curtly. “You must go alone and it has to be you. The rest of us will return to the great hall. Thank you for your cooperation. It is for your own good that you must go. The rest of us will return to the great hall.” Without warning, Wakatoshi stumbled slightly. He blinked rapidly, looking around the dungeon with a confused expression on his face.

Reon stepped forward to steady Wakatoshi, apparently released from the curse. 

Relief washed through Taichi, knowing he was alright, but the conditions hadn’t changed. The message had been made clear to him. He needed to keep going and meet whoever else was down here to ensure the safety of the others, headed back to the great hall. Considering the caliber of the attacks on the school so far, Taichi couldn’t imagine himself getting out of this situation alive. It did confuse him though, the prospect of being singled out for whatever reason. He couldn’t figure out what use he’d be to anyone, dead or alive. It wasn’t like he had any sort of power to make him a threat.

The questions continued to cycle through his mind, but he stepped forward into the darkness, ready to meet whatever fate lay before him.

A hand reached out from behind and grabbed Taichi’s arm, yanking him backward. Kenjirou’s eyes were alight with fire as he clung. “Like hell you’re going any further by yourself! I’m going in your place. Or at the very least, I’m going with you!”

Taichi could have laughed. He loved his best friend, even the parts of him that were hard to love. “You heard the same thing I did, Kenjirou. I have to go alone. It’s for the safety of the school.”

“Fuck the school then!” Kenjirou didn’t back down. “If they’re looking for misfits, send me too. We all know I don’t belong here either.”

“Yes you do,” Taichi said softly. He pulled away from Kenjirou’s grip, looking his best friend in the eyes. “Kenjirou, I know you don’t always get along with the rest of Ravenclaw, but there’s nowhere else in the world you should be right now in your life. I appreciate that you try to make me feel like I’m not so alone, but you belong here and I need you to stay with your house and stay safe. Apparently, if I go, the rest of you will be safe, but I don’t know if I believe that. If possible, find a way to get everyone out of the school. If anyone can figure out how to do that, it’s you. I’ll do my best to protect you guys as well.” Hoping his shaking couldn’t be heard, Taichi exhaled slowly and took a step away.

Kenjirou stomped his foot on the stone floor, the echo loud in the large dungeon. “Don’t say that like this is goodbye!”

Over Kenjirou’s shoulder, Taichi locked eyes with the Ravenclaw Head Girl. She was silently coming up behind her charge, arms outstretched. Taichi helped, placing his own hands on Kenjirou’s shoulders and pushing him another step back.

Realizing quickly that he was being betrayed, Kenjirou struggled against the hands holding him down. The Head Girl touched her wand to the side of Kenjirou’s neck, whispering a spell as he went limp in her arms. She nodded gratefully at Taichi, giving him permission to go on alone.

 

Knowing that coming alone was one of the conditions didn’t make it any easier for Taichi to walk onwards into the darkness as the others returned to the great room. He didn’t know the dungeons of Hogwarts too well and he hadn’t been left with very clear directions on how to make his way.

It was quickly realized that he wouldn’t have to. A door shut somewhere behind him, signaling the others had made it out of the dungeon, and a light sprang on from overhead. Only steps in front of Taichi was a tall figure cloaked in black. Frozen in place, Taichi felt his numerous questions start to spill out of his mouth. “Are you a dark wizard? What are you doing to the school? How are you rearranging the rooms? Are you a student here? How do you know all about the architecture here? Are the others safe? Why did you bring me here? Why me?”

The dark wizard raised a hand, silencing Taichi’s panicked stream of thoughts. The voice that echoed from beneath the hood was low and smooth. “I brought you here to save you. You are the only one that will survive this day.”

Shivers raced down Taichi’s back. Against all logic, he wasn’t going to be killed here, but he couldn’t even be grateful for that, knowing his friends all had targets on their backs, along with everyone else in the school. Taichi took a deep, slow breath, willing his racing heart to match the pace. From the looks of the scheme so far, this villain wasn’t impulsive. He was smart, methodical. It seemed unlikely that he would fall for any trick Taichi could hatch to ask about his secret plan.

Surprising Taichi, he didn’t need any tricks to reveal the details of the scheme. The dark wizard spoke again, taking a step closer. “I want you to be a part of my future. I want you to help me. The both of us together, we could remake Hogwarts into something truly incredible.”

“Why me?” Taichi whispered. “I’m nothing to this school.”

“Exactly,” the wizard said. “You know exactly the flaw I see in Hogwarts. It’s exclusive. Every student is so focused on themselves and their house and competing against the other houses that they don’t think for an instant what could be accomplished if they all worked together.”

Of course, Taichi agreed with the essence of that statement. He’d seen on many occasions what his friends could accomplish together, extraordinary by the standards of what individual houses could achieve. He’d often thought about what the school might look like if all the students got along with each other the way his friends did, regardless of house or class. But it was quickly becoming clear that the plans of the dark wizard didn’t include team-building exercises; he was trying to start fresh by destroying Hogwarts.

When the dark wizard spoke again, Taichi listened very carefully, cautiously interested in every word out of his mouth. “The competition doesn’t end when they graduate either. I thought it would, but you get to the Ministry of Magic and you see corruption and bias between witches and wizards who were in the same Hogwarts house decades prior. This system is destroying the wizarding world and it’s gone too far to be fixed. Someone needs to be brave enough to hit the reset button. You understand this better than most since you have an outside perspective which is why I want you to help me recreate this school so the next generation of wizards and witches don’t have to experience the exclusion you and I did.”

Taichi’s mind was racing with thoughts and arguments against such a violent plan. He understood the result, but he didn’t think the end would justify the means in this case. If he had anything to say about it, he wasn’t going to let Hogwarts get destroyed. He had people upstairs who he loved and would rather die than let them suffer the consequences of a system they didn’t create. “Who are you,” Taichi blurted. “You say you’re like me, but clearly, you can use magic.”

“I didn’t belong here though. Take a guess, what house was I in?”

“Slytherin,” Taichi answered automatically, instantly regretting it. As much as he tried not to hold any prejudice against Slytherin, it was hard to avoid the reputation they held.

The dark wizard laughed. “A Slytherin? With this plan to reform the school? Slytherins aren’t even progressive enough to want anyone but purebloods in their house. I probably could’ve made it in Slytherin, but no. I was a Ravenclaw in my day. After watching you, I think you could’ve been too, but you know you wouldn’t have fit in there completely anyway. The thing is, nobody’s surprised when a Slytherin goes bad. They walk on eggshells because if you piss off a Slytherin today, they’re burning your family house to the ground tomorrow. Everyone knows that. No one’s careful around a Ravenclaw. They tease and they don’t stop to think I might get revenge someday. I think you’ve seen what such an exclusive house system does to people who don’t fit the mold precisely.”

Taichi would be lying if he said he didn’t understand. He’d seen all of his friends unhappy because of their house. Even in the past few days, he’d seen it getting worse. Taichi thought of Tsutomu, cowering with the other Hufflepuffs because he didn’t think he was brave enough to fight. His ability to connect people made him a perfect Hufflepuff, but Taichi knew he could’ve excelled in Gryffindor. Maybe it would have even improved his self-confidence.

Wakatoshi had always been Tsutomu’s role model, but even he didn’t perfectly fit Gryffindor’s standards. Taichi found him happiest alone in the greenhouses, talking to plants more often than he talked to people. He wasn’t constantly out for adventure like the other Gryffindors and maybe could’ve avoided some teasing if he would’ve been sorted into Hufflepuff.

With his sly intelligence, there was no denying Satori of his Slytherin status, but he was far more sociable than any Slytherin should be, making friends with most anyone and seeking any opportunity to get outside and experience life. Satori stood up for what he believed in and didn’t shy away from any of if. His bravery in the face of moral opposition often went unrecognized, but Taichi was sure it could’ve been legendary in Gryffindor.

Embodying Gryffindor’s love of adventure, Hayato seemed to fit perfectly with his house sometimes. But Taichi couldn’t shake the memory of the disappointment on his face earlier in the morning when Gryffindor’s pride had kept them from working together with other houses. Hayato wasn’t in it for glory. He was in it for successful results and Taichi had watched him do whatever it took to achieve that. There wasn’t much that was more Slytherin than the unrelenting march toward success.

After spending so many years with Eita, Taichi wouldn’t put him anywhere other than Slytherin. He was ambitious to a fault sometimes and used any and every weapon at his disposal to make things happen the way he wanted. He was too clever to be any other house — or was he? Taichi had also never met someone so willing to help, no matter who they were, what house they belonged to or even if they were a useless squib. All day, Eita had been trying to help those misplaced in the school’s crisis, only to be turned away because of his house. Taichi could only imagine who would trust him if he approached wearing a Hufflepuff uniform rather than Slytherin’s.

Taichi pictured Reon, the kindest person Taichi had ever met, a picture-perfect Hufflepuff. But how much of his potential had been misdirected in caring for other people when he was fully capable of setting his mind to big picture problems. Taichi didn’t think it was a long shot to think Reon could’ve changed the world as a Ravenclaw.

It hurt to think about Kenjirou, Taichi found. Was he awake from the spell cast on him by now? Would be fighting anyone who stood in his way, trying to get back to Taichi? Of course he was still fighting, that was who Kenjirou was. Taichi doubted there were many Ravenclaws smarter than his best friend with as fierce a hunger for new knowledge. But Taichi had also seen firsthand when members of Kenjirou’s house ended up afraid of him, his temper, his mind. Taichi had seen how that hurt Kenjirou and it made him wonder if that part of him would’ve been seen as a strength in Slytherin rather than a weakness in Ravenclaw.

Taichi looked back up at the hooded figure before him, picturing him as Kenjirou now instead of an unknown variable since they had probably had a fairly similar experience at the school. If this was Kenjirou Taichi was trying to convince, he would need proof that the school was good. Unfortunately, Taichi didn’t have much of that. Just like with Kenjirou, Taichi found he couldn’t argue because the dark wizard was right. He struggled to find the right words. “Not everyone in the school is exclusive. They can change. You don’t need to kill everyone. Just teach them what you know. I’ll help you with that. But I’m not going to stand here and let you destroy this school. I may not be able to fight effectively, but I will die before I help you kill everyone here.”

The dark wizard shook his head. “Can’t you imagine it though? I’ve been trying to show you. Even the layout of this school is wrong. What does it do to the ego of the Gryffindor to know his house is in one of the tallest towers? Who does the Slytherin become knowing he belongs in the basement? Everything here is wrong. We have to start fresh.”

“You’re wrong.” Taichi closed his eyes. All the information was correct. He agreed with the dark wizard. He didn’t know how to make his point. He felt weak. “Not everyone is like that.”

“Who. Who is willing to put their houses aside? Because you and I both know this situation right here could’ve already been over if this school was willing to work together. Show me who is going to prove me wrong.”

“We will.”

The voice cut through the darkness surrounding Taichi and he looked around, hope tightening in his chest.

Into the circle of light stepped seven students of each different house: two Gryffindors, two Slytherins, two Hufflepuffs, and one Ravenclaw.

Kenjirou pointed his wand at the cloaked figure, eyes narrowed. “Taichi. Step away from the psychopath. We’re not letting you touch this school without a fight. If that’s what it’s going to take, so be it, but we will make sure you don’t get away with this.”

Taichi stumbled backwards into the circle of wizards.

Eita was closest and the Slytherin grabbed him, taking his eyes off the villain in the center to look Taichi over, a proud look in his eyes. “You’re okay? Stay behind me; this isn’t over until it’s over.” 

Nodding, Taichi stood awkwardly behind Eita, still wishing he could do more to help. The circle stepped forward, closing in. The dark wizard chuckled. “Seven. You intend to change my mind with seven wizards?”

Smirking madly, Hayato stood with one hand on his hip. “As far as I’m concerned, any number is enough as long as it’s enough to take you down. Which I’m fairly certain we’ll be able to.”

“You’re not solving any problems though.” The dark wizard locked eyes with Taichi again. “Things will just keep getting worse if no one does anything about it.”

“We get it.” Tsutomu rubbed his thumb over his wand, pointing it confidently at the dark wizard. “Thank you for opening our eyes to the issue, but I think we can handle it from here. We know what you want. We’ve been watching this entire time you’ve been down here with Taichi through Satori’s crystal ball. You had to know we weren’t going to leave him completely alone down here with you. He’s our friend. We can make Hogwarts a more inclusive, fair place but we’re not going to destroy it. The only thing getting destroyed today is you.”

Drawing a wand for the first time, the dark wizard uttered a spell Taichi wasn’t familiar with and instantly it felt like all the air had been drawn out of the room. Taichi couldn’t breathe and couldn’t move, frozen in the spot where he stood. In front of him, Eita was just as frozen as was everyone in the circle. The only one who wasn’t targeted by the spell, Kenjirou shifted nervously, never taking his eyes or the point of his wand off his adversary.

The cloaked figure stepped toward Kenjirou slowly. “On your knees.”

Kenjirou obeyed, more submissive than Taichi had ever seen of him.

Placing a hand on Kenjirou’s head, the dark wizard chuckled. “I can see you and I are a lot alike. I see now my error in who I selected to help me. You see what I do though, don’t you. You can see what needs to be done. Help me and I’ll let you survive this day.”

“What spell have you been using to rearrange the rooms?” Kenjirou asked quietly, keeping his head bowed.

Taichi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Of course, Kenjirou would be able to see the logic in the dark wizard’s plan, but he couldn’t actually be considering destroying Hogwarts to achieve it. It went against everything Taichi knew about his best friend.

The dark wizard whispered the spell in Kenjirou’s ear, sounding pleased. “Would you like to try it out?”

Kenjirou got to his feet again. “You’ll be dead by the time that ever gets used again. I refuse to join you. Today will see your downfall alone.”

Scoffing, the dark wizard brought the back of his hand across Kenjirou’s face. “You are  _ alone _ . I could release your friends and you still wouldn’t be strong enough. Maybe you could stop me, but you won’t be able to stop the downfall of the wizarding world with only seven students who understand the truth.”

Taichi felt the spell lose its hold on him and he almost fell to the floor, air rushing back into his lungs. Around him, his friends had been released too, but none of them made any offensive moves either.

Instead, Kenjirou only smiled at the wizard. “You’re right there. But you underestimate what seven wizards who get it can accomplish. No one house and no one person could unite Hogwarts but all it took was the seven of us.”

Out of the shadows, another ring of students stepped forward to join the ranks. Behind Kenjirou was a cluster of proud-looking Ravenclaws, mixed with students of every house around the entire circle. Taichi couldn’t quite make out the numbers, but he thought it was possible the entire school had gathered in the dungeon together.

For the first time in the argument, the dark wizard had nothing to say.

Wakatoshi stepped forward. “We don’t wish to hurt you; this battle isn’t about our own glory. But you cannot be allowed to go free. Come quietly or the Ministry will only be angrier.”

Surrounded on every side by students at least ten feet deep, the wizard relented, letting Wakatoshi magically bind his wrists behind his back. A collective relieved exhale rippled through the group and an unfamiliar, friendly chatter rose up as everyone gave high-fives and laughed with the person next to them, regardless of house. It was incredible for Taichi to see. He figured some of these students had probably never talked to each other before, not bothering to get to know people from other houses.

Breaking through the relaxed atmosphere, Taichi broke into a sprint toward his best friend. He smiled at Kenjirou, proud. “You did it...”

Kenjirou shook his head. “If not for you, I don’t think we could’ve gotten everyone together. Back upstairs when we were trying to unite everyone, Reon pointed out how unfair everyone treated you which only highlighted how unfair we are to each other. It was important to everyone to know your perspective as an outsider. You made everyone realize how ridiculous it is to be so exclusive.”

“I’m glad it worked. I don’t want to see this school destroyed either.” Taichi nodded, still smiling contently. “Kenjirou... why did you ask about the spell to rearrange the rooms here?”

“Because he was right,” Kenjirou shrugged. “Exactly what he said, Gryffindors in a tower, Slytherins in the basement, there’s no logic behind that except bias and exclusion. We’re not planning a genocide, but I think we could stand to do some remodeling around here. Do you mind if we use that 3D program on your computer to help map things out the way we want it? I want a plan we can all agree on as the best.”

Before Taichi had a chance to say yes aloud, he was surrounded by people. His closest friends were there, of course, along with several other members of all houses. The Hufflepuffs who had looks scared of him when they were gathered in the great hall, the Ravenclaw prefect who had turned him away earlier, the Slytherins who had tried to hurt him the other day in the library, the Gryffindors who had teased him walking away from the quidditch pitch last weekend. They all shared a slightly bashful expression, the only apology Taichi needed to know he was accepted here now by all of them.

The Ravenclaw prefect pushed her way to the front of the group, standing beside Kenjirou and locking eyes steadily with Taichi. “Sorry for earlier,” she said, clearing her throat uncomfortably. “I don’t know exactly what kind of reforms we’re going to be making around here, but you’re going to have a place in that too as well as other squibs born to wizarding families. You’re as much a part of the magic world as the rest of us and we shouldn’t discount what you can do. The plans could change once we all sit down to talk this out, but I think we’re keeping the house system, only changing what it means and how we interact with the others. But with that in mind, I think I speak for all of us when I say you are welcome in any of our spaces and will be treated as one of our own.”


End file.
